The Fluttering Swordswoman! Showdown with the Straw Hats!
by PheonixDino
Summary: An infamous pirate captain with a bounty of 400 million berries was presumed dead 5 years ago, but Zoro has reason to believe that she may still be alive and well on the island that the Straw Hats are currently revisiting after their journey on the Grand Line: Amazon Lily. Is Zoro's motive for finding her simply out of mere curiosity or do his intentions go much deeper than that?
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: For those of you who have already read this chapter, it has been brought to my attention that the link to the illustration of the newspaper was not working. To view the illustration, go to deviantart and search for: PheonixDino. It should be the only thing that pops up. Note that you must capitalize the 'P' and the 'D'.

Disclaimer: One Piece is owned by One Person. It's not mine, it's Oda's. It's just fun to write about.

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Chapter 1

An old newspaper?

The Secret of the Fluttering Swordswoman!

One day, while Luffy is brushing his teeth, the water on the ship all of a sudden stops working.

"Hey, Usopp the waatterrr isn'ttt workinggg," Luffy slurs with toothpaste still in his mouth and shouts over to the deck, where Usopp and Chopper are doing a funny dance around the mast.

"Hop! Hop! Ha-op!" Usopp shouts as he jumps from one foot to the other, never touching both to the ground at once.

"Remember Usopp!" says Chopper. "The first to have more than one foot on the ground loses!"

"Hey, would you quiet down already?! I'm trying to take a nap damn it!" Zoro shouts from the lawn over to the mast.

"Hey, Zoro!" Luffy yells. "What happened to the waterrrrrrrrr?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Zoro grumbles, closes his eyes, and leans back on the tree he's napping against.

Luffy, mouth foaming with toothpaste, looks back at Usopp and Chopper and stares at them. "Hey! That looks like fun, can I join? Prettyyy pleasseee," Luffy exclaims and leans out of the bathroom door. "Gum Gum baaazzookkaa!" He stretches an arm out to grab hold of the mast and flies past Sanji, causing the toothpaste to slobber out of Luffy's mouth and onto Sanji's face. Luffy crashes into the mast, and toothpaste dribbles all over it and onto the deck. Usopp slips and falls on his rump with his feet still in the air. Chopper stops hopping and laughs, and puts both feet on the deck. Meanwhile, Sanji is holding a deliciously cooked shrimp platter and is enraged.

"Idiot captain," he mutters under his breath. "LUFFY, LEARN TO WASH OUT YOUR MOUTH AFTER BRUSHING!" Sanji calls out over the rail. He takes note of the music coming from the bunk room as he takes his handkerchief out of his pants pocket and wipes the toothpaste off of his face. "NAMI SWAAAANNN!" He drifts along the stairs and floats over to Nami, who is reading a magazine while relaxing on a lawn chair. "I brought you some shrimp and a refreshment my dear!"

"Oh, thank you Sanji, and did you use the last of our treasure to buy the ingredients for it?" she grills him with a feigned smile. Sanji ignores this, and attempts a make-up hug, in which Nami promptly slaps him. He then strolls over to greet Robin with the same enthusiasm and gives her the same refreshment.

"Robin my deareeeesst!" Sanji delivers his platter of shrimp in front of her. "I've made a scrumptiously delectable spread of shrimp for you-ooo!"

"Why, thank you, Sanji," Robin says calmly and puts down her novel. "But it appears to be a bit _pasted_." Sanji examines the shrimp. He finds the shrimp looks good, just as he had planned, but with a hint of…. toothpaste.

"LUUUUUFFFFFY!" Sanji yells. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper are in a pit of argument over who won the one-foot-hop contest with Luffy laughing in the midst.

"Whattdaya want Sanji? Stop interrupting on my fun time!" Luffy pouts and goes cross-legged in front of the now slightly bent mast.

Sanji runs up to him in a rage and gives him a kick to the head. "You spit toothpaste all over my wonderful platter of love for Nami SWAAAN!"

"But I…!" Luffy puts up a finger in protest, but Sanji kicks him in the face again. "…was just trying to brush my teeth."

"Luffy? Brushing his teeth? That's a new one," smirks Zoro.

"Shut up you stupid moss head!" Sanji turns his face over to the lawn and scowls. Zoro speeds over to the mast, directly in front of Sanji and goes face-to-face with him.

"Oh yeah, you wanna fight me, you dumb cook?!" he growls and flexes his muscles as he pulls out his swords. A tornado of swords and kicks erupts on the deck.

"Hey you guys, would you quit fighting already?! I'm trying to enjoy some sun! Is that too much for a girl to ask? I mean seriously." Nami puts down her magazine. She stomps over to break up the fight between the boys and puts her hands on her hips.

"Anything for you Nami SWAAAN!" Sanji exclaims as he breaks away from the fight, causing a sword slashing Zoro to crash through the door of Nami's map room, and he grunts from the impact.

"ZORO! If one of my maps is even slightly damaged because of you, I swear I'LL KILL YOU!"

Usopp, apparently losing the argument, distracts Chopper. "Oh, no, Zoro looks like he's hurt, Chopper! You better go help him!" Usopp chuckles.

Chopper immediately rushes over to Zoro. "Are you alright?" he asks as he checks his vitals and examines all his bones.

"I'm fine," Zoro says and spits out a piece of the deck. "You might want to take a look at Sanji though."

"I'm on it!" Chopper replies cheerfully and his stethoscope magically appears as he approaches Sanji.

"Heyy, Sanjii, I'm hungry when's dinner gonna be done?" Luffy whines.

"You just ate, moron!" Sanji snaps.

Choppers face drops and he scurries behind the mast, his hooves sticking out. _Scary..._

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Luffy chuckles, "I forgot."

Robin carefully places her book upside down on her lawn chair as to not lose the page, and saunters over to everyone. Sanji's eyes morph into hearts at her presence.

"It's almost as if your stomach is made of rubber or something," she laughs to herself and leans against the mast next to Luffy.

"Well, duh." Luffy cocks his head, causing toothpaste to drip lopsidedly down his chin. He rubs his belly. "….and it's running on empty. Aren't you, little tummy?"

"Well, here, eat this!" Sanji throws the ruined shrimp platter in his face. "Serves you right!"

"Ooooo, yummyy!" Luffy stuffs the toothpasty shrimp in his mouth at once and gobbles it all up. A large mail coo passes by the ship and drops something. Sanji pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his suit jacket and observes as the bird flies away while he debates on what to do for dinner that night. Pulling the cigarette from his mouth, he exhales a puff of smoke when Franky comes down the stairs and out onto the deck, with a newspaper in hand.

"Hey guys, check it out! We got a newspaper!" He holds the newspaper up and waves it proudly. He sits on the swing at the bottom of the stairs and the branches bend due to his massive weight. "Eh, it looks a little old though. The pages are SUPER worn."

Robin walks over and leans over his shoulder. "Let me take a look at it." She takes the paper in her hands.

Brook saunters from the bunk room, just getting back from practicing a new song on his guitar. "Afternoon, Robin-san."

"Same to you," she replies politely.

"So, Robin-san, may I take a look at that newspaper? And also, if you don't mind," he pauses. "May I also see your panties?"

"I don't think so," Robin replies and denies him access, not only to her panties, but also to the newspaper.

At the mention of panties, Sanji wavers over to the shade of the tree and the others, with the exception of a wood-buried Zoro, follow suit as well.

Robin takes a closer look at the paper and says, "It's no wonder that the pages are worn. This was from five years ago."

"Huh, five years ago." Usopp rubs his chin. "That's some mail service."

"STUPID BIRD! You couldn't get this to us any sooner?!" Luffy yells in the direction of the bird. "Hey! I have an idea! It'll be better as FOOD!"

"Captain Usopp has a mission! The dangers ahead will be challenging, even for my sniping expertise!" Usopp proclaims and nods his head in agreement with himself. "It's the catch-the-bad-mail-bird mission!"

"Alright! Come on, let's get some cool stuff to catch it with!" Luffy jollies over to join Usopp. "Chopper, you coming?"

"Awesome!" His eyes sparkle and water with glee.

"Well, I guess that takes care of dinner." Sanji inhales another smoke, and then exhales. "But back to that paper. Robin what does it say?"

"It says here that a pirate with a four hundred million berry bounty is dead, as well as her crew, the Flute Pirates. And I quote, 'The infamous pirate, the Fluttering Swordswoman, has been presumed dead along with her crew. At last, the terrifying slicing of sailor's hearts, and the slaughter of countless lives, will come to an end.'" Zoro looks up at the mention of his trade, and maneuvers out of the splintered blocks of wood surrounding him. After briefly stretching and sliding his swords back into place in their sheaths, he steps over to everyone. He lays his palm out, gesturing towards Robin, and she hands him the newspaper.

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To view the illustration of the newspaper, go to deviantart and search for: PheonixDino. It should be the only thing that pops up. Note that you must capitalize the 'P' and the 'D'. Thanks!

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"Yo, Zoro, what does it mean by 'slicing their hearts'?" Franky leans forward on the swing and tries to get a better look.

Zoro flips through the pages. "Huh, that's weird."

"What is?" Nami asks.

Zoro turns the paper so that everyone can see, and then points to the picture.

Robin leans in to get a better look at the photo. "So it says here, that this Fluttering Swordswoman sliced the hearts of sailors," Robin comments.

"Yeah, and it doesn't show any blood," Zoro adds.

"So, somehow she killed them without spilling any blood?" Sanji inquires.

"It would appear that that is the case," Robin explains. "One has to wonder what kind of power it was that killed these sailors."

"Quite a terrible sight to see," Brook adds. "Though I suppose I don't have any eyes to see it with anyway yohohoho."

"Well," Zoro reasons and rolls up the paper. He tucks it into his waistband. "She's dead, so I guess there's no need to worry about it." He walks aways down the deck and is met by a ruckus coming down from the front of the ship.

"Heyyy guyyysss! We got dinner!" Luffy chuckles and yells out over the deck with a huge bird draped over his shoulder.

"Oh, you're all so kind, but there's no need to thank me." Usopp bows down again and again. "Just the mighty sniper king doing his job!" Usopp takes a mask out of his knapsack, and positions it on his face. He poses with his right hand on his hip and the left outstretched and pointed. Usopp's dramatic performance is left in the dust. "On second thought, you can thank me all you like!" he proclaims louder, still with no response.

Chopper just hops alongside Luffy and giggles excitedly. "We're going to have a feast tonight!" he cheers.

"Alright, I guess that means I should get started." Sanji strides over to the group, takes the bird carefully, and travels up to the kitchen.

XXX

"Wow, I'm so full. I don't think I could eat another bite after tonight." Luffy, bloated stomach and all, sits down next to Zoro on the lawn.

 _Yeah, I'd like to see that happen._ Zoro grins at his own thoughts and leans his head back against the side of the stairwell. His swords and the old newspaper rest in a pile next to him.

"Well," Luffy says and bounces to his feet. "I'm gonna go get some rest. Night Zoro!"

"Night." Zoro closes his eyes. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, he looks over his shoulder to the newspaper next to him. He curiously peeks at the pages until his eyelids become heavy and he falls asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Full Speed to the Island of Women!

Sea King Showdown!

"Hey, Namiii, are we there yet?" Luffy restlessly bothers her towards the front of the ship with Franky at the helm. "I can't wait to see the weird lady warriors again."

"We should be arriving soon." Nami studies her map and then looks up to the horizon and her eyes light up with the excitement of a new adventure. "So you said that they were pretty eager to meet the rest of the crew?"

"Uhhuh." He grins from ear to ear.

"Ohhh, I can't wait!" Sanji proclaims and spins around with his arms wrapped around his chest. "An island entirely made up of _real_ ladies running into my arms!" His face flushes as he zones out into Sanji-love-land.

Zoro rubs his neck and joins them. _Why did I have to fall asleep on the lawn again? My neck is killing me._

"So it's an island made up of just women huh?" Zoro wonders aloud. He continues to massage his neck and stretch out his back.

"Beautiful, beautiful women bounding on beaches and leaping into my arms! _Real LADIES! CURVES AND NO UNNATURALLY PROTRUDING CHEEKBONES AND JAWLIIINNNEEESSS!_ " Sanji pauses mid-twirl and shudders at the memory of his time in the Kamabakka Kingdom during the time in which the crew was separated for two years.

"Would you shut your trap already?" remarks Zoro.

Sanji breaks out of his reminiscent nightmare and presumes to leap around in his own little world, oblivious to Zoro's obvious irritation.

"So how does that work exactly?" Franky comments from the helm. "Having an island with just all women. How does it manage to stick around?"

"I dunno." Luffy shrugs. "But it sure is cooool!" He stretches out an arm to grab hold of the mane of the lion at the front of the ship. He flies up, lands right on top of its head, and is now in his captain's seat. The ocean breeze kisses his face and wisps his hair to either side, all of it tucked underneath his straw hat. He promptly positions the palm of his hand on the top of his hat, holding it down to prevent it from flying away with the wind. The salty smell of seawater escapes into his nose and fills him with joy that can only be associated with being at sea. He squints and in the distance, at the edge of the horizon, he spots an island up ahead.

"WE'RE HERE!" he declares with a hearty laugh and a bright smile.

"Really?" Usopp comes out of the bunk room and moves to front of the ship. "Wow that was pretty fast if you ask me."

Brook comes out of the bunk room as well and is playing the new song that he was working on the night before. Chopper files out soon after.

"That's because we took a special current to get there," Nami explains. "But we'll be approaching a calm belt any time now so we'll have to use the ships paddle system." Nami nods to Franky, who promptly switches the ship's gears so that it's in paddle mode. They enter the calm belt soon after, and the paddle system takes full control on the ship's motion. After sailing through the calm belt for a few minutes, dark, moving shadows below the sea's surface become visible.

"Hey, um… guys!" Usopp squeals and looks over the side of the ship. "What'sss… that... moving in the water?"

"Is it a monster?!" Chopper squeaks and is just as terrified as Usopp.

"Oh yeah," Luffy says and takes his hat off, allowing it to be secured by a cord that is draped around his neck. He scratches his head. "I kinda forgot to mention the sea kings."

"LUFFYYY!" the crew yells at him, but he just shrugs and hops off of his captain's seat and back onto the deck. He gets into his fighting stance, fists at the ready.

Zoro takes out his swords, placing one in his mouth, and grasping the other two in his hands firmly. Brook also draws his sword.

Usopp reaches into his knapsack for his slingshot. After some digging and a bit of thrown out garbage, he finds the slingshot as well as some gunpowder stars and holds them both in his hands.

Nami takes out her clima tact and Robin puts her novel down while rising from her lawn chair.

Franky is dependably standing solid at the front, ready to steer if need be.

A large beast erupts from the ocean's surface, spraying the crew with saltwater and knocking Sanji out of his daydreams. The sea king's powerful tail swipes across the deck and curls around Sanji's torso, holding him captive.

"Damn bastard," he scowls. He pushes on the king's tail with his palms and thrusts himself out of its grasp. "And… KICK!" An explosion of kicks hits the sea monster. The king's body crashes against the water from the impact and Sanji falls back onto the ship. The waves come up in an uproar and rock the ship this way and that. Rising up again, and even more enraged, the beast lets out a thundering roar that shakes the floorboards of the ship.

Stepping in front of the ferocious beast, Zoro crosses his swords in front of his chest, and leaps into the air. "One-hundred-and-eighty-six caliber PHOENIX!" The sea king cries out in agony as Zoro's blades hit him in the chest, spraying blood everywhere. Bouncing back from the swordsman's attack, the beast propels itself forward, pointing its muzzle straight for him. With a grunt, Zoro blocks the beast, swinging both of his swords so that they cross each other in front of his chest. The blades slide off of each other, and the beast's head is pushed away.

"GUM GUM... GATLING!" An explosion of fists lands above the king's wrinkled forehead, pushing its ugly face even farther from the Sunny. With the beast now weakened, Zoro delivers the final blow with the full force of his three-sword-style, and slices the beast into huge chunks. The crew scurries about to catch as much of the meat as they can. Zoro sheathes his swords at his hip and smirks as he watches the meat fall down onto the deck.

"Meat! Meat! Eat! Eat!" Luffy pumps his fist. Usopp soon joins him in his chant. Luffy wraps an arm around his comrade's shoulder, and Usopp does the same, kicking their legs up in a comical dance. "MEAT! MEAT! EAT! EAT!"

"Alright, alright, just get it to the fridge already," Sanji asserts.

"Meat! MEAT! Eat! EAT!" Luffy and Usopp chant as they each hug a pile of meat and hobble up to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, the ship continues speeding on towards Amazon Lily.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

An Old Flute?

Zoro and the Hoard of Women!

"Alriiiggghttt!" Franky cheers. "Looks like we're close enough to drop anchor!"

"Aye, aye Franky!" Chopper salutes, moving over to the side of the Sunny and attempts to lift the iron anchor.

"Let a real man handle this one, Chopper mah boy!" Usopp points a thumb to his chest, and also attempts to lift the anchor. Zoro, a hand resting on his swords, walks over to them.

"Need some help?" he offers.

Usopp defiantly shakes his head. He tries to lift it again and his face strains from the effort. Usopp finally lifts it up a little, only to have his 'victory' ruined when it falls down again on his toe.

"Owwoowww OW OW OWW! GET this thing off of mmeeee!" he bawls.

Zoro takes hold of one side of the anchor with his right hand, and throws it over the side effortlessly. Chopper is left with his mouth gaping as the anchor flies off the ship and sinks down to the ocean floor.

Usopp relaxes and is relieved to be out from under that thing. He stands up and throws his hands up in defeat. "OK! I give up, there's no way any normal human being could lift that thing!"

"Usopp, I think you're forgetting that Zoro isn't normal," Sanji smirks.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Zoro states matter-of-factly.

A rowboat is dispensed from one of the ship's many docking bays, and Luffy swings down into it using an elastic arm.

"Heyy! You guys coming or not?" Luffy smiles up at his beloved friends. Everyone boards the cramped rowboat, ramming their elbows into each other's faces. Franky and Zoro double on the paddles, and move the rest of the way surprisingly fast. The boat thuds against the rocks at the shore and the surf foams at the edge of the sand. Franky secures a rope around one of the rocks to keep the little boat from drifting.

"That's some arm you got there, Zoro," Franky comments and ties another knot. "Seriously, you almost out paddled me."

"Thanks," Zoro grins. "I train hard to keep my strength up."

"Yeah?" Franky finishes his tying. "I think that's SUPER!" He moves into a dramatic pose, placing his forearms together to complete his blue star tattoo.

The group tours across the beach and heads for the forest straight ahead of them. Luffy leads the group with Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Robin, Chopper, Franky, Brook, and Usopp walking behind him in corresponding order. As they wander through the towering trees, everyone starts to question whether or not Luffy knows where he is going. Luffy scratches his head and looks to the left. Then he looks to the right.

"Okay, I have no idea where this village thing is," he confesses.

Nami stands in his way and gets in his face. "How do you not know where it is? You've been here before!"

"I wasn't here long," Luffy answers her. "And I was paw-pawed over here, remember?"

"That's right." Robin's foot gets temporarily stuck in the mud. She trudges out of it and moves closer toward Luffy and Nami. "You were launched here by Kuma."

Luffy nods and feet rustle ahead of them in the trees.

Zoro places a hand on one of his swords, ready to draw it. The rustling becomes louder by the second, closing in on Luffy's crew. Over the rustling comes a woman's voice. The crew spreads out in a circle formation and is prepared for anything that comes at them. Almost.

"LUUUFFFFYYYY!" A blonde-haired woman rushes through the last layer of trees and propels herself into Luffy's arms, causing him to fall on a metal object that digs into his back.

"Owww…"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Marguerite exclaims as she gets on her feet and extends a hand to help him up. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fiiiinnnnee…" Luffy gets up, rubs his back and searches for whatever it was that dug into his back. "What was that thing anyway?"

Robin kneels down and sees a sparkle amidst the mud.

"TREASURE?" Nami's eyes sparkle and shine with the thought of finally getting a chance to refill their treasure room.

"I don't believe so." Robin pulls out the shiny object and wipes some of the excess mud away. "It appears to be an instrument of some sort."

Nami's face drops in disappointment, and she falls to her knees in despair.

Brook trudges through the mud and Robin hands him the strange, mud-encased instrument.

"If it isn't treasure then I have no use for it," Nami remarks.

"It's a flute. They can be quite valuable depending on what they're made of," Brook replies. Nami brightens at this. "Nami-san, does this mean-"

"Don't even ask it," she rebuts.

"In that case," Robin says and retrieves the flute back from Brook. "Usopp, would you mind carrying this in your bag? It could tell me something about the history of the island."

"Just looks like a dirty old flute to me, but ok, whatever you say." Usopp places it in his knapsack.

Zoro's mind races back to the night before. _A flute, huh? From what I remember, that swordswoman in the article played the flute as some sort of weapon._ Just as he thinks he's onto something, Zoro loses his train of thought.

The women from the village come storming through the forest to greet them with promises of food, water, and, of course, booze. All the way back to the village, the girls wouldn't stop staring at the men of the crew.

"I've never seen a man before!" one young girl gabs excitedly.

"The only one I've seen is Luffy from about five years ago!" another one chats. Both girls walk close to Zoro and stare at him. "But these men don't stretch like he does for some reason." The second girl reaches over and pinches Zoro's cheeks in a futile attempt to stretch them.

"WOULD YOU GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME ALREADY?!" Zoro shouts angrily as he attempts to assert his personal space. The girls withdraw, but continue on with their blabbering and give him 'discreet' glances.

XXX

As soon as Luffy and his crew set foot into the village, they are swarmed with a horde of grabby hands and the scenery is scarcely seen above the jumble of ladies' limbs and lit up faces.

Sanji is pulled under, but opens his arms and accepts the maidens affection enthusiastically.

"Oh my!" one of them trumpets to the rest as she circles around Brook. "This one is different too!"

Brook is taken aback by the sudden attention and thinks to himself, _Why is this woman circling me like a vulture about to dig into my flesh? Though I suppose I don't have any flesh to dig into yohohoho..._

"Interesting, interesting," another jots down details on anything from appearance to personality on her handy notepad. "Not all men stretch. Some men have curly eyebrows. Some men are just bones."

"The saga of new discoveries," another one says.

In the background, a mass of women rush towards Zoro and topple him over. Their greedy hands grab at his face, feet, hair, anything really. One woman goes too far and places a hand up his thigh. Zoro's face flushes.

"GET OFF OF ME ALREADY!"

"And most men have a temper." scribble… scribble...

Zoro manages to sneak a hand through the sea of ladies on top of him, reaching his palm for the ground. He squirms out from under them and remains undetected at first. He breathes a sigh of relief.

"Hey, where'd he go?" a short, stocky blonde asks.

"LOOK! OVER THERE! COME ON LADIES, THE MAN'S GETTING AWAY!"

Zoro flees the scene as fast as his feet can carry him as his swords bump against his hip. His feet pound on the uneven ground of the forest, leaving the stampede behind him in the dust.

"Aw, man! He got away!" the girls whine in unison.

"THERE HE IS!" A girl points to her left.

"Damn it, how did I end up back here?!" Zoro dashes back into the forest, this time without emerging again.

"Well, girls, it looks like it's time to prepare for the feast tonight!" a giant brunette warrior asserts.

"Right!" They salute in unison.

"Alright! FOOD!" Luffy jollies over to the big group of girls and follows them to the center of the village. His crew, with the exception of Zoro, trails behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Enter Fruit-Picker Ari!

Burglar in the Men's Quarters!

"Finally." Zoro comes to a stop in a small clearing in the forest. "Some peace and quiet." Zoro takes in his surroundings. The trees tower above him, reaching for precious sunlight. A majority of the trees are in their fruit bearing season and the plump fruit weighs down the branches. Beams of light peek down through the treetops in small patches that illuminate the forest floor. In the distance, ocean waves crash against a far-off shore. "Where is everyone? Geez, did those idiots get lost again?" He looks for his friends, wandering aimlessly through the forest. The crashing ocean waves become louder, and underneath it humming echoes through the trees. Suddenly, he walks into another clearing and sees a woman picking fruit on the edge of a cliff.

 _Shit!_ He scurries behind a tree and his body thuds against its solid trunk. He peeks around the tree and observes her. She stands on the tips of her toes to reach up for the red fruit. She picks it, and then kneels down to place it gently in her bag. She continues to pick fruit and Zoro concludes that she didn't see him. He leans his head back in relief against the tree, knocking a plump fruit from a high branch that bonks him on the head.

"What the-" he says loudly and rubs his head. He turns his head around the side of the tree, wondering if the girl had heard him.

"Huh?!" The girl whips her head back at the sudden noise. Her movement was so sudden that her still-outstretched arm and her still-reaching hand throw her off balance and she tips toward the cliff. She topples over the edge and into the ocean, catching her foot on her bag, which falls down with her.

"AH! SHIT!" Zoro rushes to the cliff's edge and peers over it. He looks down to the water and tries to spot her. Swearing, he dives in after her. His body scoops under the water's surface and he blinks open his eyes, looking all around for the girl. He spots her steadily sinking a few feet below him, unconscious. He swims down to her and wraps an arm around her waist. He paddles her up to the surface and sets her down gently on the shore.

"Hey, sorry about that." He looks down at her. _Crap! That's right she's unconscious!_ He grasps his hair in his hands. His face drops in denial as he realizes what he has to do. "Alright. I guess that's my only option then." Zoro places both of his palms on her chest and pushes down repeatedly. Her ribs move with each push. After a while of trying this with no luck, he positions his hands on either side of her. He leans forward and presses his mouth to hers, breathing into her. She peeks open one of her eyes, not unconscious after all.

"GET OFF OF ME!" she screams at him and shoves him, sending him flying a few feet. She wipes him off of her lips with the back of her hand. Zoro gives her a shocked and bewildered look.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL!" he shouts right back at her. "I WAS ONLY TRYING TO-"

She runs along the shore, kicking up the sand and leaving a trail of dust behind her.

 _Okay then…_ Zoro walks in the other direction, presumably where his friends might be, when he trips. He grunts and gets to his feet and dusts himself off. He looks behind him for the source and finds a bag with some bright red fruit as well as some herbs inside. Without thinking about it, he takes the bag in his hand and continues walking. After wandering along the shore, he happens to come across a small, secluded shed and takes a peek inside. The door creaks open and the floorboards groan in protest as he tiptoes along their splintered surface. There's a small bed tucked in the back right corner with a dresser beside it, a fireplace on the left wall, and a square table in the center. Despite the floorboards and walls being partially withered away, the shed seems to be in good condition. There isn't a speck of dust coating any surface, but there are nibbled fruit cores littering the table and clothes thrown about in the room. _It's almost like someone lives here or something._ A small rectangular object rests on the dresser. Turning it over in his palm, Zoro holds the small object in his hands and finds that it's a broken picture frame. There are dark, dried up droplets on the edges of the shattered glass. The blood stains the picture, giving it an eerie tint. Below the surface of blood is a faint image of a small girl and boy. Both of them hold bamboo swords at their sides and each has an arm wrapped over the shoulder of the other. Zoro looks at the image closer and can barely make out a second, smaller boy in between the other two. _That's strange, what's something like this doing on an island of just women?_ Zoro sets the frame on the dresser face down, just as he found it. He takes his leave, not noticing anything else worth investigating inside the tiny shed.

XXX

After sunset, Zoro finally makes his way back to the village. Luffy and the others are in the center of town, stuffing their faces with all kinds of food as he makes his way over to them. The crackling of the bonfire and the singing of the women as they dance around it give the air a celebratory aura. Luffy, himself, sits at a huge buffet of his own. In front of him are stacked towering piles of meat, and beside him, a pile just as high of dirty dishes. Luffy, with his mouth still full, looks over at Zoro.

"Heyy, Zoro, where were you? You're missing out on all the FOOD!" Luffy waves a chunk of meat in the air and then stuffs it in his face.

"Nowhere."

"More like the middle of nowhere," Usopp whispers under his breath, saying it so quietly that only Chopper hears him. They both start laughing to themselves.

"Nowhere my ass, mosshead. Did you get lost again?" Sanji smirks and then continues eating.

"I wasn't lost, you were. I couldn't find you guys anywhere."

"You see, Zoro, that's why you really shouldn't go running into forests." Nami shakes her head at him. "Oh, cute bag by the way," she laughs. Zoro glowers at the bag still in his hand.

"Yeah... well... I…" Zoro stutters. "Nevermind!" He walks away and runs into Marguerite and asks her where the crew is staying for the night. Having overheard their previous conversation, Marguerite decides to lead him there instead of just giving him directions.

On the way there, they walk in silence. The only sounds around them are the distant singing of the women and the chirping of the crickets hiding in the bushes lining the road. They approach the palace and stall at the gate.

"Well, here we are," Marguerite says. "This is where you'll be staying."

"Thanks." He opens the gate and starts toward the door.

"If you want, I can give that bag back to the original owner."

"No thanks," he says, "I'll give it back to her myself."

"I was only saying that because she doesn't care for pirates much."

"Funny since she's being ruled by one."

Marguerite just shrugs at this. "Well, in either case, whatever you want to do."

"I'll give it to her."

"In that case her name is Ari, she's pretty hard to miss around here." Zoro nods at this and Marguerite walks back down the road to rejoin the celebration.

Zoro walks down the stone path leading to the palace and knocks on the door. He waits for a few minutes, and kicks a stone in his boredom, watching it hit each step going down. After a couple moments, some rustled footsteps are heard and a servant hurriedly opens the door for him. Zoro can't help but notice the veil covering her face.

"This way to your room." She bows her head in respect and leads him up a set of stairs. Before long, she pauses by door with the number one embossed in gold. She ushers him in. The ceiling reaches up at least ten feet and a sparkly chandelier hangs from the center of it. Zoro frowns at the initial girlyness of the room. "Our Empress apologizes for any inconvenience regarding the style of your rooms," the servant explains. "You see, we had very little time to prepare rooms for you and your crew members."

"It's fine," Zoro says. "As long as it has a bed I could care less about what it looks like."

"Good, good." The servant bows once more. "If you need anything, just let us know."

Zoro nods. The servant closes the door with a small click. Zoro throws the girl's bag onto a chair and collapses on the bed from exhaustion. _Ari, huh? I'll deal with it tomorrow. For now, I'll..._ Zoro falls asleep before he can finish his internal conversation.

He dreams that night. He is once again facing Mihawk and his swords are at the ready. They are back on the ocean as they were at the Baratie all those years ago. He unties his bandanna from his left bicep and ties it tightly around his head. The salty ocean breeze lifts his shirt and his hair, but his feet remain solid and steady on a plank of wood. Mihawk is a bit aways, sitting on a wooden reclined chair on a small boat. All of a sudden, Mihawk is face to face with Zoro, only inches away from his face. Mihawk draws a delicate, soft finger along the scar on Zoro's chest. Mihawk's yellow eyes turn greener and give him a curious gaze. _What the?!_

Zoro is so shocked by the content of his dream that he is sprung wide awake. He flashes open his eyes and sees a girl leaning over him with her finger on his chest. She realizes with a shock that he is awake. She rushes over to the window quickly and jumps outside, her feet landing with an audible thud.

"WHAT THE-" Zoro scrambles out of bed, fumbling and tripping over the covers. As soon as he untangles himself, he rushes over to the window, but by the time he gets there, the girl is nowhere to be seen.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

A Favor from Robin!

100 Fruity Caliber Phoenix?

"Wake up, mosshead." Sanji opens the door and leans inside. "Breakfast is ready."

The crew's ruckus is heard through the open door. Usopp and Chopper run down the long hallway and race each other to the dining room. Usopp seems victoriously in the lead, but then Luffy flies past him and swings himself, column by column, down to the dining hall. "HEY! LUFFY! NO FAIR!" Usopp cups a hand by his mouth and screams.

Luffy's laugh echoes down the hall. "SEEEE YAAA!"

"Darn it all, Luffy!" Usopp runs a little faster.

"HEYY! Guys! Wait for me!" Chopper pants and tries to keep up, but is ultimately in last place.

Sanji leaves the door open and strolls down the hall, following Luffy and the others.

Zoro rubs his eyes open and wonders what all the fuss is about. He stretches out his arms, and swings his legs over the side of the bed, resting his feet on the soft carpet beneath them. _Oh yeah, I almost forgot._ He walks over to the chair to pick up the bag he put there last night when he notices that it's not there. _I thought for sure that I put it here! Maybe I'm going nuts or something._ Zoro looks all around the room. In the dresser drawers, the floor, and on the bed. He looks in every nook and cranny where it could possibly be. Zoro peeks his head under the bed and in the middle of looking under there at the dust bunny colony, Nami and Robin pass by his room.

"You didn't get lost going to the door did you?" Nami inquires with a seriously concerned expression lining her face.

"'What-" Zoro knocks his head on the bed frame in his haste to get out. He finally wedges himself out from under the bed and looks over to them. "No, I was just looking for something."

 _This isn't going to end well._ Nami laughs to herself.

"Have either of you seen a bag with fruit in it?" Zoro keeps searching under the bed.

"I can't say that I have," Robin replies, "but I've heard that it's quite pretty." Both girls start laughing and Zoro frowns. Robin and Nami take their leave and talk about going shopping in the village the next day. Zoro ignores their comment about the bag since he has bigger issues to deal with.

 _Damn. Where the hell did I put it?!_

After a couple more minutes of searching, Zoro gives up, heads out the door, and walks down the hallway. He happens to pass by Usopp's room and looks inside.

The room is just as girly and extravagant as Zoro's. A high ceiling, a chandelier, and a fancy bed frame. It's almost an exact replica. Zoro sees Usopp's knapsack draped over a chair and goes over to it. _That flute that we found in the forest… I may be imagining things, but…_ He takes the flute out of the bag and inspects it. There is still a crusted layer of mud covering the flute's surface, making it difficult to see any detail clearly.

 _I probably shouldn't try washing it myself since I don't know how old it is. I can't risk it breaking. I'll ask Robin about it._ Zoro tucks the flute into his waistband. With a few detours he finally makes it down to the dining room and takes a seat. The noise and laughing around him is muted by his own thoughts. An hour goes by without him realizing it, and everyone rises from their seats, about to leave the dining hall. Zoro finally comes to, and walks up to Robin and inquires about the flute.

"Sure. It shouldn't be a problem to wash it." She examines the mud-encased flute in her hands. "It appears to have been buried not too long ago."  
"Yeah?"

Robin nods. "I'd estimate about anywhere from four to five years ago."

Zoro looks shocked. _In that case, maybe I'm not far off._

"It's not necessary, but I'm still happy to wash it for you."

"Thanks." Zoro leaves the dining hall and heads outside the palace. He intends to walk towards the Sunny to get another look at that newspaper. _The Fluttering Swordswoman huh?_ Lost in his own thoughts, and also just lost in general, he ends up on the wrong side of town. _Not where I wanted to go, but at least it's quiet._ The birds chirp and sing from the treetops and the constant ocean breeze sways the tree branches this way and that. The sun has almost risen to its peak. He happens to come across a small cottage that seems a little detached from the rest of the village all the way out here. The loud voices of two women pour out from it.

"Come on, it's safe," one voice says. "These pirates aren't like the rest of them. The captain is the same man who saved my life from the Empress five years ago."

"You don't understand Marguerite!" another voice shouts. "If pirates see me they might-"

"ARI… WAIT!" Marguerite says. "I'm your friend you can tell me anything!"

The door of the cottage is slammed open, and a girl, presumably Ari, runs out and into the left side of the forest. Marguerite leans out the door and reaches towards her friend. Her shoulders sink and are weighed down by her friend's sadness. She notices Zoro walking up the path towards her.

"So I'm assuming you came here to bring back her bag." Marguerite looks around him for her friend's bag and continues talking when she doesn't spot it. "But as you can see she distrusts pirates completely and I, myself, don't even know why."

"Yeah," Zoro says. "I can change her mind."

"What makes you think that you're able to do that?"

"Because I'm loyal to my captain," he declares, "and I won't have anyone mistake him as your run-of-the-mill pirate!" Zoro starts toward the right side of the forest.

"She went the other way."

"Right!"

"No, Left!"

"That's what I meant!" Zoro turns and runs into the left side of the forest.

XXX

After a couple of hours of straggling through the forest, Zoro comes back to the place that he was at yesterday. _Funny, looks like I ended up here again._ He looks past the trees and into the clearing he stumbled upon the day before. He sees the same girl that was there yesterday, hugging her knees and looking far into the distance. He steps out of the trees and into the clearing, snapping a twig in the process.

The girl jumps up to her feet, startled. Their eyes meet, and she realizes who he is. _It's one of those pirates! I can't risk him recognizing me!_ "STOP! Don't look at me! Go away!" she shouts at him and turns her face away, desperately covering it with her hands.

Zoro solemnly walks over to her until they're less than a foot from each other. "And why exactly should I do as you say?" he asserts.

In shock, she lowers her hands from her face enough so that Zoro is able to cup her face in his hands. Her arms drop to her sides and she looks straight at him. Her intense mint-green eyes make his face flush. To his surprise, he tucks a stray lock of brown hair behind her ear. Their faces inches from each other, he continues, "I see no reason why I can't."

Ari moves shyly away from him and his hands drop back down to his sides. Blushing, she holds an arm with her hand in front of her. "You heard from my friend that I don't like pirates so why… why are you-"

"I'm here because you threw my captain in with all the rest of them," he says angrily. "Your friend is right. Luffy isn't just any pirate captain and you shouldn't label him like he's just another pirate."

"No, I didn't mean to label anyone! I, myself, don't like to judge people."

"Good. Just so long as we have an understanding." He turns to leave. "Frankly, I don't give a damn why you don't like the lot of them, but for the record, I used to hate them just as much as you. Thought they were scum. By the way. Sorry for startling you yesterday."

She turns her face away from him, but nods in acceptance.

"You were picking fruit yesterday, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well, here." Zoro stands and draws out his swords. "Three-sword-style… 100-fruity-caliber...PHOENIX!" All of the fruit comes raining down. Ari smiles, standing and catching as much of the fruit as she can. After the 'weather' has cleared, Zoro asks, "What are they?"

"These?" She points toward the juicy, red fruit in her palm. "They're pomegranates." She beams at him. He grins slightly. "It's almost sunset so we should go back to the village if we don't want to get lost."

"I'll.. um.. follow you," Zoro says.

As they walk back to the village Zoro starts thinking about what she said a little deeper.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: So I realized that I didn't put an author's note in any of the other uploaded chapters, but better late than never right? Originally this fanfic was created for a friend of mine, hence the OC and Zoro shipment. But I hope you like it! I'll try to upload a new chapter or two every couple of weeks. Thank you so much for reading and for your support! Don't forget to favorite, follow, and leave me feedback on your opinions of the latest chapters from this fanfic!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece in any way, shape, or form. Just like writing about it, thank you very much.

* * *

Chapter 6

Palace Visit to See Zoro!

The Memory of Liam!

"Hey, Ari, it's time to wake up. I made us some breakfast," Marguerite says. "I know you had a bad day yesterday." She walks into Ari's room and sets a delectable breakfast spread on her nightstand.

Ari rubs the sleep out of her eyes and looks over at the tray splayed out beside her. There's a tall glass of pomegranate juice, whipped cream with strawberries, and thin, crispy pancakes. There's even a tiny pitcher of syrup and a saucer with blueberries. "Thanks, Marguerite, you didn't have to do this!" Ari jumps out of bed and throws her arms around her friend. Marguerite returns her embrace.

"You know what I tried to tell that pirate yesterday?" Marguerite shakes her head at the thought. "I told him there was no way to convince you that these pirates aren't so bad. He was determined though, I have to give him credit for that." Ari pulls away from Marguerite and sits back down on the bed and places the tray on her lap. She dives into the pancakes, sprinkles on some blueberries, and pours syrup on them. She carefully cuts straight to the middle in order to save the crispy edges for last. "He… did he change your mind by chance?"

Ari swallows another mouthful. "Well…" she says and thinks back to yesterday's events. She remembers his warm hands on her face, his solid body inches away from hers. His green eyes boring intently into her own.

"Hey, wait a second. What exactly did that pirate say to you? Or shall I say do to you? You're face is redder than those strawberries right now." Marguerite gives her a mom look and places her hands on her hips.

Ari raises her hands up in defeat. "Do… um… he didn't do anything. Just told me that I shouldn't group his captain in with the rest or something like that," she says. "He also helped me with all those pomegranates over there." Ari points to a large bag by her nightstand.

"Wow. That was nice of him." Marguerite notices Ari's other bag that she usually takes with her for picking next to the larger one. "Oh yeah, when did he give you back your bag?"

"Huh? Oh, he didn't." Ari gives her a confused look.

"Then how did you get it back if he didn't give it to you?" Marguerite scrunches her face up. "I saw him go into the palace with it and then he probably put it in his room and… ARI! How exactly did you get it?"

"I just took the liberty of getting it myself, that's all."  
"By breaking into the guy's room?!"

Ari just shrugs at this. Now finished with her breakfast, she climbs out of bed. She grabs her handbag, which is fully equipped with brushes and canvas. She exits the room and calls to Marguerite, "I'll be back later. I'm going to go and get some more painting supplies, so cya! Thanks again for breakfast!" She pops out the door without another word.

At first, she intends to go straight for her sun spot on the cliff's edge, but somewhere along the way, her feet carry her in a different direction. Before long, she realizes that she is heading to the palace. She strolls through the town and the village is already alive and animated. One girl chops meat here, another weaves, and so on. The voices of her neighbors fade as she walks closer toward the palace.

When she finally arrives at the gate, she stands there and is unsure of what to do next. There is some sort of loud noise on the other side, but she reaches out for the brass snake knocker on the left side of the gate anyway. Just as she's about to knock, a rubber ball flies through the other side of the gate.

"Heyy… Hancock, sorry I kinda messed up your gate thingy," Luffy shouts over to the palace. He chuckles and turns to Ari. "Hey, sorry pink haired lady, didn't mean to almost hit you."

"Don't worry about it," she says and waves it away with her hand. "I actually need your help. I was wondering if Zoro was here?"

"Zoro?" Luffy confirms, and she nods. "Dunno." He shrugs.

"Ok, thanks anyway." She leaves the palace and, slightly disappointed, trudges along the uneven forest floor to her sun spot.

Ari makes it to the cliff's edge and sets down her canvas and brushes. She puts herself to work making paint out of the herbs available to her. It's still early morning, but the sun's rays roll across the horizon and touch the clearing. Her favorite pomegranate tree is solid and sure. Flowers thrive around this part of the forest due to the constant supply of sunlight. She kneels down by the tree and picks the tiny, yellow flowers around the base of it. She takes out her mortar and pestle and grinds the petals up until they're small enough to add to her paint base. After she finishes making the yellow paint, she sets up her easel and brings out the blue and red that she made last week. As she paints, the strokes of her brush animate her canvas, and bring it to life in front of her very eyes. She creates an image that she hasn't seen since she was ten years old, and hasn't dared to think about since she was fourteen. She lets the colors and the morning air whisk her away into her memories...

The air is cold and crisp and the clouds drift over the sun, leaving the dojo in a faint glow. Ari always loved afternoons like this: the sun lighting the earth as if it were nothing but a small candle. The autumn leaves sail on the wind and gradually rest on the weathered grass. The wind combs through her brown hair gently and welcomes her into its caring embrace, bringing her scented gifts from their fruit plantation upwind. Ari sets her bag down on the dojo's porch and picks up her sword in its place. She walks down the steps to the grass, where her brother is impatiently waiting for her.

"Ari!" Liam whines and tugs on his sister's sleeve with one hand while holding his bamboo sword in the other. "Come onnn! Let's battle already!"

"Alright, alright." Ari stretches her own sword out in front of her. "Take… THIS! HIIYAA!" She locks her sword with her brother's, both of them engaged in competitive play.

Liam springs back from her attack and the spiked bracelet on his wrist almost slips off. He recovers and charges at her full force. "HEUH!" He swings his sword down above her head. She dodges his attack and slips to the side. He fumbles to regain his balance and totters from one foot to the other. They skirt around each other for a couple more seconds before their swords clash again. Liam's strength almost matches his sister's. Their bamboo blades slide off of each other time and time again. CLONK! HIT! SLIDE! SCRAPE! The sound of their battle echoes off the outside walls that surround the dojo. _She's beaten me every single time. Up until now that is! Today is the day I'll beat her!_ He swings his sword around to her side, hitting her and she doubles over in pain. He flicks her sword out of her hand and claims his first victory.

"YEAH! Did you see that sis? Now who's gonna be the world's greatest swordsman?" He laughs and does a victory dance, pumping his sword and fist up in the air. His black hair flips this way and that.

"It was a good fight," she says calmly and walks away.

 _Normally sis is more competitive than this… wait…_ Liam wonders and is now furious. "ARI! Did you let me win?!"

"It's our last match; I figured you deserved a victory." Ari smiles halfheartedly.

"What do you mean _last match_?" Liam's eyes water. "WHY is it the _last_ match, sis?"

"I… have to move away and travel for a while," she says, "but I'll be playing my music for audiences all around the globe. My teacher thinks that I really have what it takes to be a professional musician!" She smiles happily at the thought of it.

"Buttt.. but Ari." Liam drops his sword and the sound echoes off the walls and silences everything in their midst. "It's not fair!" He gives her one last stubborn look and stomps up to the door of the dojo. As he steps inside, he kicks a rock off the top of the stairs. Ari watches as it hits each step on its way down. She loves sword fighting and how close her and her brother have come because of it. She's been mastering and tuning her sword skills even longer than the dojo owner's daughter. It's true that she would miss the dojo, but music was her real passion. It was the thing she did best.

 _He'll be okay… I just need to give him some time I guess._ Ari plods up the steps to the dojo's porch and takes her bag down with her to the grass. To pass the time, she takes out her painting supplies and sets them down gently in front of her. She turns to face the dojo and begins to paint, taking reference from the building in front of her. Afternoon turns into evening as she finishes painting the building and adds her and her brother in. She holds the canvas out in front of her and evaluates her work. _Good. Something for him and Skyler to remember me by when I leave._ She stands and walks toward the dojo with her painting in hand and is on her way to give it to Liam as a parting gift. There's a clop clop clop on the road and she sees a horse carriage approaching the dojo. She stops walking when she's about halfway to the stairs, watching the mustangs and the wooden coach come nearer with each step.

"Miss Flutter!" The coach comes to a stop and Ari's teacher/recruiter tumbles out, hurriedly rushing over to her. He grabs her by the arm and pulls her over to the carriage. "We're going to be late! I told the music director that you would be there at 6 on the dot! And it is now…" He looks at his watch, and his face drops with disbelief. "It's already 5:55! Come, come we have to go!" He grabs ahold of her again, causing her painting to slip out of her hand and drop to the ground below.

"Wait a minute! Hold on!" she calls out and reaches for her painting. Her recruiter continues to tug on her arm and she interjects, "I thought we weren't leaving for another week or so!"

"Come, come, no time for that now. We have to go, we're going to be late! Late, not good. Not good at all!"

"Ari?" Liam rushes out onto the dojo's porch.

"I'll see you in a few months, Liam!" Ari is pulled into the carriage and the whip cracks, signaling for the horses to go.

"Ari…?" Liam stumbles down the steps and falls on his face, cutting himself on a sharp rock, resulting in a deep cut above his right eyebrow.

"LIAM!" Ari sticks her arm out the window and reaches toward her brother.

"ARI!" He ignores the wound and stumbles to the carriage as it's pulling away. He grabs ahold of the window ledge, desperately trying to reach into the carriage to her. His oversized spiked bracelet falls off onto the carriage floor and his legs become too fatigued to run alongside the carriage anymore. He slows down to a stop and watches as his sister is taken away from him.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: Again, thank you for continuing to read this fan fiction and for your support! I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it! It's one of my personal favorites in this story. And if you'd like to read more about Zoro, be sure to check out this story on my page, "The Secret that Shall Remain Untold! His Skills Went South!" Check it out at this link: s/11962812/1/The-Secret-that-Shall-Remain-Untold-His-Skills-Went-South

And don't forget to leave some feedback, it's very much appreciated!

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own One Piece. Wish I did, but I don't. Love writing about it, but don't own it, deal with it.

* * *

CHAPTER 7

Mysterious Dojo Painting?

Zoro's Conclusion!

Ari snaps awake from her past to find her brush still resting in her hand. She looks up to the sky and to her surprise, the sun is already shining above her, indicating that it's around noon. She gingerly puts a finger against her painting, and finding that it's completely dry, she tucks it back into her bag along with her paints. She slings her bag around her shoulder and looks at her favorite pomegranate tree, reminding her of the fruit plantation back home. _Home. It hurts too much to even think about._ She glances into her bag at her painting once more, and her heart wrenches, longing for her family, and the place she once called her own. She walks out of the clearing and into the forest as she tries to figure out what she's going to do with the painting. _I would take it back to the cottage, but I don't want Marguerite to ask questions about where I got my inspiration for it. I think I'll just give it away instead._

She arrives back in town and ponders on who would take care of her masterpiece without asking any questions about it. Someone slightly cold… self conceited even... _Of course! The Empress. She appreciates anything that's beautiful and she's too full of herself to care about the history behind it anyway._ Arriving at the threshold of the palace, she raises a hand to knock on the gates when she notices that there isn't anything left to knock on. _I guess that pirate captain broke_ both _the gates._ She sighs with irritation. She opts to knock on the door instead and is relieved to find it still intact and untouched by the reckless Straw Hats. A petite, brunette servant girl cracks open the door, allowing Ari to get a rather limited view of the grand foyer. What she is able to make out is the staircases going up on either side and a sparkling chandelier in the center of the ceiling. It reflects miniature rainbow beams on every wall, making it seem as if the palace is made of a mystical magic.

"Excuse me, miss, but the Empress isn't accepting any visitors today," the servant girl explains. "She has given me strict orders that she is not to be disturbed while entertaining her guests."

"Yes, I've heard." Ari frowns. "I was just going to see if I could interest her in a painting of mine." She takes the painting out of her bag and displays it in her arms before the servant.

"Oh, my!" The servant puts her hands to the veil covering her face. "It's beautiful."

"So would you like it?"

"Personally, miss, yes I would," she says shyly. "However, unfortunately I cannot spend my Mistress's dollar."

"Well, in that case," Ari says as she extends the painting toward her, "just take it, free of charge."

"Oh, miss, I couldn't possibly." She continues to bashfully admire the work. "But… if you insist... then this would be the perfect painting for our exquisite gym! I just know that the Empress will love it as I do." Ari nods, happy to be rid of the bittersweet memory of when she painted the same painting fourteen years ago. She exits the palace, and her absence is replaced by the hubbub of the servants, excitedly talking about the new present for their beautiful Empress. Ari walks down the path to the village and wanders aimlessly through it as she tries to figure out what to do with the rest of the day.

She stops at several shops set up on the side of the street, but is too distracted to consider any of the items seriously. After a while, she stops looking at shops and just strays beside them, left to her own thoughts. _I wonder how Liam and Skyler are doing these days… I wonder if Mom and Da—_ her thoughts halt when she slams into someone in front of her and a rainstorm of gift bags and shoes comes cascading down on her and knocks her on her butt.

"Hey! Watch it!" a woman's voice shouts from above her. "You almost made my purse spill out on the ground!"

"Sorry," Ari replies, "I didn't mean to." She rubs her head, and digs herself out of the massive pile of bags.

"I'm sorry about my friend," another voice, also a woman, says. "She's quite particular about things that involve money."

"It's ok, I understand." Ari helps the ginger pick up her bags. She gets a closer look at the two of them and recognizes them as two of the strawhats: Nami and Robin. _Crap! I keep running into pirates!_ As soon as the shoes are stuffed back in their bags and all of the bags are picked up and accounted for, Ari bows in apology. "Sorry again for running into you." Ari turns and is about to leave when Nami puts a hand on her shoulder.

"You don't have to leave," Nami says with a guilty countenance. "Why don't you stay and do some shopping with us?" Ari turns around to face them and Robin nods in encouragement.

 _I don't want to be rude…_ "I guess it wouldn't hurt."

"Sounds good to me," Robin says and turns back around to the shelf of books her and Nami were looking at. "I'd like to stay here for a while longer. I'm looking for a book about the history of the island."

Nami turns to the bulky lady running the shop and inquires, "Excuse me, I'm looking for some large papyrus." The store lady retrieves some large rolls of paper out from under the stand and unrolls them to show her. Ari stands next to Robin and peeks at various books with her.

Robin looks at her curiously from the side. _It seems as if I've seen her somewhere before…_

Ari peers around the plethora of history and map books and her eyes pass by a music book. She holds in her gasp due to her present company, but can't help pulling it out and taking a peek on the inside of the front cover. She holds in a sigh of disappointment. _I figured it wouldn't be the same copy I had before._ She slides the Stravinsky music sheet book back onto the shelf hesitantly. After debating for a couple more moments, Ari grabs the book back off of the shelf and decides to buy it. She turns around and finds that Nami has already checked out and has three large rolls of paper under her arm.

Robin makes her purchase before Ari and walks up to the shop lady with five large books on history. "Just these books for me, please."

Ari buys her book and the girls continue strolling down the street, stopping at nearly every shop they come by until a bright red paints the evening sky.

XXX

The maids have been eyeing Zoro for quite a while, and today they decide to make their move. They peer around a corner, watching intently as Zoro roams out of his room that morning. He wanders aimlessly down the halls, trying to find a shower. The maids follow his every turn and giggle at his horrible directional skills. In their amusement, one of the maids snorts loudly and Zoro whips his head around to face them. He spots them before they have a chance to move, leaving them standing there, frozen in place in the hallway.

"Hey," one of the maids whispers, "maybe if we hide now, he'll forget he ever saw us."

"Good idea!" Tori whispers back.

"Told you the new girl was a genius!" a bulky, body-guard-type maid proclaims. They all scurry behind the grand curtains that are pulled back to let some light in. In their hurry to hide, they stir up the dust that is trapped behind the curtains. Believing that they have him fooled, they start to giggle again.

With another laugh, the new girl inhales some of the dust unintentionally up her nose, and she sneezes loudly, "Ahhhh…. CHOOOO!"

"Shhhhhh!" the other two angrily whisper at her, "you'll blow our cover!"

"Hehehe…. blow!" The new girl sneezes, and then snorts again, accidentally inhaling her veil into her mouth. She coughs it back out which provokes another grimace from the other two maids and says, "I see what you did there!"

Despite what the girls originally believed, Zoro was not fooled, or amused by this even in the slightest. He may be challenged when it comes to navigating, but he isn't a moron. He draws back the curtains and the girls give the new girl another angry look. "So, you mean to tell me that you've been following me all this time while I was searching for the shower?" The girls nod.

"If you want to know where the shower is," the new girl gabs, "it's in the basement of the east wing."

"You idiot!" The bodyguard girl smacks her on the head. "That's where the servant's quarters are!" Both girls realize what the new girl was up to and give her a look of shame.

The second maid continues timidly, "The showers are actually linked to your rooms, sir. Our Empress made sure to have the best accommodations we have available for you and your crewmates." She bows in both apology and respect.

"Oh," Zoro says, flustered. "I'll just get going to my room then." He turns to the right, going toward the east wing.

"Excuse me, sir," the second maid says quietly, "it's the other way. You're headed to the servant's quarters right now."

"Right." He turns and runs the other direction. The new girl pouts, disappointed that Tori didn't let him keep going on to the servants' rooms.

XXX

"I could have sworn that this was the right way!" he shouts in frustration. He wanders aimlessly through the palace, looking for his room. "Damn. Can't find it anywhere! What's wrong with this place?!" He strays into many different rooms: the weapons room, the garden room, the ballroom, and so on until he stumbles across a set of double doors identical, in his eyes at least, to his room. "Finally." He opens the set of doors to find himself in a gym of some sort. There's a huge array of heavy weights, treadmills, and even an olympic-sized pool. Feeling right at home, he grins. He walks over to one of the heavy weights and lifts it. He sets it back down as if it were a feather, deeming it too light for his tastes. His eyes wander the room, looking for a heavier option. In the corner, he spots something large under a dusty, gray canvas. He strides over to it and gingerly picks up a corner.

"Now THIS is more like it!" He lifts the heavy object, which is apparently a large, stone statue of the Empress, and begins his workout. Lifting the statue with one hand, the heaviest weight in the other, and the second heaviest weight in his mouth, he trains until his muscles are numb.

After several hours, he decides to take a quick 'break'. He pulls his shirt over his head, and slides his haramaki and pants off of his hips. Left only in his underwear, he throws his clothes on a lawn chair by the side of the pool and sets his swords down gently on top of them. He dives into the water and a chill runs through his body.

"This water is freezing." Zoro smirks. "Just how I like it."

He starts with a simple butterfly stroke and goes from pool end to pool end. After a while of swimming like this, he pauses for a moment to catch his breath. There's a shuffling of footsteps coming from the hall and voices talking excitedly to one another. He climbs out of the pool and finds a white towel laid out on one of the other lawn chairs. He wraps it around his hips and tucks in a corner to secure it.

"I can't wait to see what it looks like!" one of the voices says from outside of the room.

"It'll look so much better when it's hung up! I can't wait either!" Two giggling servant girls come into the room. A brunette holds a framed canvas and walks over to the wall in front of the weights. The other servant girl skips behind her cheerfully and carries a hammer and a bucket of nails. The brunette takes out a stepping stool from a closet and sets it up. Before she begins, she props the canvas against the side of the stool gently. She climbs up to the top step and extends her hand down toward the other girl, motioning for a nail. The girl hands her the hammer and a nail. The brunette busies herself by hammering it into the wall with a force that is great enough to provoke sparks. After hanging up the canvas, the brunette carries the stepping stool back into the closet and closes the door with a small click.

Zoro, still wrapped in the towel, walks over to investigate. He recognizes the painting instantly as one that was hung up in his old dojo back home in Shimotsuki Village. The maids catch sight of him and wonder what he's doing in the gym, seemingly naked, and in their Empress's towel.

Instead of inquiring about the towel wrapped around his hips, the brunette servant instead inquires, "Do you like it? The painting?"

Zoro realizes that the maid speaking to him is one of the same ones who was following him earlier. "I had the same one back in my hometown," Zoro replies. "How long have you had it?"

"We got it just now, actually," the other maid replies. "The artist just dropped it by and‒"

"Just now?"

"Yes…"

"Funny," he wonders aloud, "since the artist that made the one in my village is dead now."

"Perhaps it's a different artist?" the brunette suggests.

"Yeah," Zoro says as he studies the painting closely, "perhaps." The maids bow in respect and take their leave as they continue on with their excited babbling. The door shuts behind them, leaving Zoro alone with his thoughts. He moves closer to the painting and looks at the bottom right corner. _A toothy smile and squinted eyes. The same artist signature as the one at the dojo in Shimotsuki. This means…_ Zoro rushes over to the exit and bursts through the doors, catching up to the maids right before they turn the corner.

"WAIT!" He comes to a stop beside them. The maids look absolutely shocked and are confused as to why he ran to them the way he did. "You have to tell me what the artist looked like!"

"Um.. let me see…" the brunette ponders and holds a finger to her mouth. "She was… oh let me think… I'm sorry, sir, I can't remember. I was too excited to be receiving a new gift for our Empress."

"Yeah, ok," he retorts.

"Good day to you." The maids curtsy and take their leave as they continue their incessant babbling.

 _Damn. What's up with this place anyway?_


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Wow so here we are at chapter 8, halfway through the first part of the fan-fiction! I know it's a long story, but stick to it; the future plot twists will be worth it! Also, a special thanks to all my followers out there. I'm flattered that my first fan-fiction is good enough for you guys to want more of it! Again, reviews reviews reviews. I cannot stress this enough! Those things make a difference in any writer's writing, whether they're beginners (such as myself) or professionals.

Disclaimer: Another thing I can't stress enough: I do not own One Piece. The extent of what I own (including that of a cat and a starving piggy bank) does not nearly equate to what Oda has built in this awesome anime series. I own a cat and a ceramic pig, not an anime. And that's all I have to say about that.

Thanks again to all my viewers and future reviewers your support is greatly appreciated! And without further ado, I bring you chapter 8!

* * *

CHAPTER 8

Zoro has feelings?

Ari's Invited to Dinner!

Luffy had come inside from the evening air and was relaxing on a couch in the foyer, next to a cart that is stacked high with platters of meat. The chandelier creates pretty little rainbows on every corner and Luffy oohs and ahhs at how cool they are.

Zoro comes around the corner and, in his frustration and confusion, sits down next to his captain. "Hey, Luffy?"

"Yeah?" Luffy responds with his mouth still stuffed with food.

"Did you see a visitor come by?"

"Yeah." He swallows another gigantic bite. "This pink haired lady came by to see you."

Zoro's face drops in disbelief. _Wait… was it_ her _who did the painting?_ "Just now?"

"No, she came by this morning."

"So did you see anyone else since then?" Zoro asks impatiently, starting to get irritated.

"Nope, don't think so."

Zoro groans, and is back at square one. "So… you say that… she wanted to see me?"

"Yep."

"Did she say why?"

"Nope."

"A lady, wanting to see Zoro," Sanji says while waltzing in from the hallway and into the grand foyer, "that's one I haven't heard before."

"And what's so surprising about a lady wanting to see me?!" Zoro curses under his breath.

"Then again, now that I think about it, mosshead," Sanji continues with a smirk, "we're the only men on the island so they're probably getting desperate."

"Would ya shut your trap already?! She's not just another skirt for you to get a load of!" Zoro shouts. Sanji raises a curly brow and eyes Zoro curiously.

"Well, in that case, it appears that even plants have a heart," mocks Sanji. Zoro's face turns bright red.

"Screw you! It's not like that!"

"Wait, Zoro has a heart?" Usopp, who was listening in on their conversation with some new invention of his, tumbles all the way down the staircase and smashes his nose into the floor at the bottom of the stairs. "And I think mine just stopped beating…" he croaks.

"Hang in there, Usopp! Don't you dare die on me!" Chopper flies down the staircase, apparently in on Usopp's spying scheme.

Franky pops his head out of the weapons room at the top of the stairs. "Yo, totally not eavesdropping," he says while holding a wrench in his hand, "but let the guy feel a little. A man's still a man, even with emotions."

Zoro rises to his feet to hide the red that is now painting his face. He tromps across the foyer, opens the door, and takes his leave. _Damn! I don't believe this!_ Zoro stomps along the path and out of the gateway to the palace. He notices that all of a sudden the air is a bit cooler and abruptly crashes into something, falling on his ass. He rubs his head, squints his eyes and looks up.

"Stupid tree!" Zoro springs to his feet and points an accusatory finger towards the pine. "Why did you have to sprout up instantly like that?!" he shouts at the tree and something rustles above him. Zoro moves out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit by a pinecone on its way down. He smirks at the tree and assumes that he had outsmarted it. But then a whole rainstorm of pine cones comes cascading down on him, leaving him stuck in a hoard of pine cones. He frowns. _At least it's only pine cones this time,_ he thinks to himself, remembering the events of the day before when a hoard of _women_ were piled on top of him.

Footsteps and voices approach the palace and Zoro hurriedly burrows out from under the mass of pine cones, dusting pine needles off of his clothes. He leans against the tree and tries his best to look natural, despite the mountain of fallen pine cones surrounding him. As the voices get louder and the footsteps closer, Zoro realizes that two of the voices and footsteps belong to Nami and Robin. The third voice sounds familiar, but he can't quite pick it out. As soon as they're closer to the palace, he notices a girl he recognizes walking in between his two crewmates. _Shit! This girl again?!_ He turns away from the path and feigns interest in the berry bushes behind him.

"Hey, Zoro, if you're looking for the path, you're going the wrong way," Nami teases him right as the girls are passing by.

"I know! What do you think I am, a moron?!" he shouts over to her.

"It appears that he ran into a tree again as well," Robin whispers over to the other two, just loud enough so that Zoro can still hear her.

"It got in my way!"

Ari laughs lightly. _Is this a habit of his?_ Ari and Zoro turn their heads at the same time and make eye contact. She takes note of his rugged and muscular appearance. She would never admit it to herself, but his rippling muscles and chiseled jawline especially demand her interest and attention. Even though her pulse quickens and her stomach flutters at the sight of him, she refuses to accept that she could have anything for a pirate. _I could never take that risk._ Even if he were to feel the same, which she suspects that he might, she likes to stay in a no-risk zone. A zone that no man has ever gotten past, and that no one at all will after what happened to her about five years ago. A few moments pass by that feel like years, and they break eye contact. She walks toward the palace with the other two girls, and he stays put by the pine tree.

XXX

"Thanks for helping us carry everything inside," Nami says and turns to Ari while they walk through the front door to the foyer. Ari sets her bags down beside her on the polished floor.

"NAMMMIII SWAAN! ROBINNN DEAR!" Sanji floats over to them. "Need some help with those bags?" He grabs both girls' bags and looks curiously at the girl behind them.

"Thanks," Nami says and is relieved that her arms can rest.

"Thank you, Sanji," Robin replies.

"And who is this lovely lady?" He waltzes past Nami and Robin and goes in between the two girls to get to Ari. He takes her hand and bows slightly. "Pray tell, what is your name, fair maiden?"

Ari's face turns red with both embarrassment and annoyance. "Don't touch me please."

Sanji looks utterly shocked and rejected. He goes into a pit of despair and sinks down to his knees dramatically.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry, we never did get your name, did we?" Nami asks.

"It's Ari."

 _Ari…_ Robin wonders to herself. _Where have I heard that name before?_

Luffy is still sitting on the couch eating his snack when he interjects, "Hey, wait a minute, aren't you that pink haired lady that dropped by earlier asking about‒"

"Yeah that was me," she interrupts Luffy.

Luffy cocks his head and looks at her curiously, but chooses to keep his mouth shut due to her pleading eyes. He instead decides to ask Sanji about dinner. "Heyy, Sanji, what's for dinner?"

Sanji hops back on his feet and recovers from his despair. "I was in the kitchen preparing it before I came out here," he says. "We're having a delectable sea monster scallion with some fried island mushrooms on the side." Luffy gives him a bewildered look. "Don't worry, Luffy, these aren't the kind of mushrooms that spawn on your body."

"Wait! How did you know about that?! Are you a psychic _and_ a cook?! That's… so cooool…" he beams with glee.

"You could say that," Sanji replies, "but Marguerite and the other wonderful ladies on this island told me all about it."

"Hey guys, do you know if they got any cola around here?" Franky calls from inside the weapons room. "I'm running on a short supply." He walks out of the weapons room with a massive pile of ammunition in his arms. He walks down the stairs to the group and sets the heap down at the base of the staircase.

"There should be some in the kitchen," Sanji replies and leads Franky down the hall in which Sanji first came from. The smell of the crisply cooked meat wafts down to the foyer, and the sizzling of the mushrooms travels along the length of the hall.

"Speaking of dinner, I'm famished," Nami says.

"I'm with ya all the way, Nami!" Usopp's tummy grumbles audibly.

"I think I'll just stick with the mushrooms, though," Chopper says.

Ari turns to grab her bags and leave when Robin speaks up, "You can stay and dine with us if you like."

"I don't want to impose…" She turns back around to face Robin.

"Don't worry about it, you wouldn't be imposing at all." Nami waves away Ari's concern with her hand. "In fact, Sanji would probably kill us if we let you leave on an empty stomach."

Ari looks at the group around her and evaluates how big a risk it is to stay. _I don't want to be rude or anything… and that sea monster meat does smell pretty good…_ "Thanks alot, that sounds good." She walks alongside the group and the aroma of sea beef becomes stronger as they stroll closer to the kitchen.

* * *

So, that was chapter 8! Yeah, yeah, i know. It took me forever to finally post it, but hey it's here now right? In the next chapter you'll get a sneak peak into Zoro's motivation for his restless search for the Fluttering Swordswoman! Hang onto your hats for chapter 9: Enter New Girl Marin! The Memory of Kuina's Inspiration!


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: It's been a long time, but here it is! Chapter 9! Thank you to all of my followers and favoriters for your support! This story wouldn't be nearly as rewarding to write without you!

* * *

Chapter 9

Enter New Girl Marin! The Memory of Kuina's Inspiration!

Brook plays music during the Straw Hat's meal just like he always had since he joined the crew. He looks over and notices a new, feminine face at the table tonight. He strolls over with his violin in one hand and his bow tucked away to give the girl a proper greeting.

 _My heart is pounding out of my chest at such a beauty… that is… it would if I had one yohohoho…_ "My name is Brook," he introduces himself proudly.

"Ari," she replies.

"Well, then, Ari-san," he pauses. "Could you show me your panties?"

Ari is taken aback by his unexpected comment and takes a little longer than usual to come up with a decent reply. "Don't think so." _I should have guessed… this guy_ is _all bones after all._

XXX

After dinner, Ari stands up from her chair and leaves the dining hall. Robin, who is sitting next to her, offers to walk her back down to the foyer and Ari reluctantly accepts. After she slips on her sandals and opens the door, Robin interjects.

"The Empress probably wouldn't mind you staying here with us for tonight," Robin says. "She's grown quite fond of Luffy and thus it's not likely that she'll say no to a request from him." Footsteps approach the foyer from the hallway.

Ari steps away from the opened door a little and ponders this, wondering what her best option is. Right as she's about to decline, Luffy chimes in from the hallway.

"Oh, come onn!" Luffy walks up to the girls. "We're friends now, and Robin just told you that Hancock's fine with it."

 _Friends? I can't risk getting attached to any of them… but… I suppose…_ "Friends?"

"Uhuh, you got it. We're friends."

Zoro finally comes back toward the palace and steps up to the porch. "Just make up your mind already." He stands in the doorway with his right arm resting on his swords. A gust of wind breathes through the door causing his hair to lift slightly. His natural musk catches onto the wind, carrying his robust scent to Ari's nose. Her stomach does a little flip. She looks over to Zoro and a look passes over his face so quickly that she almost believed that she imagined it.

 _Does he want me to stay?_ "Alright then," she says, "I'll stay." She's surprised by her own sudden decisiveness.

"Alright! Hehehe." Luffy dances with joy.

"I believe that room number eight upstairs is unoccupied," Robin says. "Do you need any help finding it?"

"I can figure that out on my own, but thank you," Ari says and Robin nods in response. Zoro grins and steps inside, closing the door behind him. A maid walks past the group with a basket of cleaning supplies in hand and heads to the stairs.

"Hey, Luffy is there any food left or did you eat it all?" Zoro asks.

"Wait, was I not supposed to?" Luffy cocks his head and before Zoro can respond, the maid pipes up from the base of the stairs.

"Excuse me, but I heard that a maid noticed your absence and delivered a tray to your room for you," the maid explains. "I'm headed up to the guest quarters at the moment anyway, so I could escort you if you like."

"Well, in that case..." Zoro walks past Ari, accidentally catching the fresh orchard-like scent that tags along with her skin. Zoro continues walking, but the imprint of her fragrance remains ingrained in his memory. He follows the maid up the staircase and the click of her heels on the tile echo through the room.

After going down the long hallway in silence for some time, the maid speaks up, "Your room is just up ahead, sir." As they come closer, Zoro notices that his door has been left ajar.

 _Something isn't right._ Zoro puts a hand on the hilt of one of his swords and uses his thumb to withdraw it slightly.

"I'm quite certain that no one would have been able break in; our security is top notch," she assures him. They both walk over to the door and the maid screams. Zoro instantly draws his sword. "OH! It's only you Marin! What exactly are _you_ doing in here? You know you have no business lingering in the guests' rooms," the brunette addresses her confidently and gives her a stern look.

"Sorry, Tori."

The brunette cocks up a smile and her eyes blaze fire into the maid in front of her, as if daring her to defy her.

"I just wanted to make sure he got his dinner," Marin retorts and walks to the door. She bows in apology to Zoro.

 _Looks like the party's getting more interesting. That's the other chick who was following me in the halls today._ Zoro sheaths his sword, but still keeps a hand on the hilt.

"I apologize for this, sir," Tori expresses and furrows her brow. "You see, she's _new_ here."

"Marin Andakaba, sir," Marin says and comes out of his room.

"Zoro."

"Back to work we go."

"Aw, come on..."

Tori grabs her by the arm and takes her away to help her clean. Zoro checks the room to make sure that nothing is missing. Satisfied, he lays in his bed and is ready to sleep when he hears a knock on the door.

XXX

"You know what I'd like to know?" Nami demands. Ari and Robin exchange glances at each other. "I'd like to know why all the maids around here wear those creepy veils. It's reminds me of my almost-wedding with that zombie lion all over again." Nami shudders at the distasteful memory.

"It's very simple actually," Robin replies. "I did some reading up on the island's traditions and found that since the Empress of this island is said to be the most beautiful woman in history, the maids are required to wear the veils to cover up their own beauty so that the Empress is the only one whose face can be clearly seen in the palace. Also, it is said that the veils contain magical properties that protect the maids from the gorgon eyes on the Empress' back in case they were to ever accidentally see them."

"Sorry I asked," Nami replies bluntly.

"Anyway, I'm glad that you can stay, Ari," Robin says. "I have much more reading to do about the island's history so if you need anything, I'll be in my room for the night."

"Alright."

Robin starts up the stairs and leaves Nami, Ari, and Luffy in the grand foyer.

"So here's the deal," Nami says, "normally I would do this kind of thing with Zoro, but he's probably gonna sleep for the rest of the night. So how 'bout a drinking game?"

"Ooo sounds fun, can I join?"

Luffy's comment goes unrecognized and Ari politely declines, "Sorry, but I should be turning in too."

"Oh alright, I guess I should get to work on some new sea charts then."

"Goodnight," Ari calls to the group. She makes her way up the stairs and heads down the long hallway, searching for room number eight. She comes to a stop in one of the hallways and hears hushed voices around the corner. Pressing her body against the wall, she peers over and listens in. _Robin? What's she doing talking with Zoro and why did she lie about where she was going?_ An object is carefully wrapped and held in Robin's hand. She lifts a corner of the wrapping and is about to show Zoro. All of a sudden, Ari feels a hand grab her shoulder and she whips a fist around to punch her perpetrator. The woman catches and grasps her fist firmly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize that it was a maid behind me," Ari apologizes and looks at the blue-haired maid.

"It's fine."

"Excuse me, miss, but do you need help finding your room?" another maid inquires nervously.

Ari nods, "Yeah, if you don't mind." The second maid looks over at the blue-haired one in scrutiny.

"Don't worry about it," the blue-haired maid says. "I can finish cleaning up the halls."

The brunette hesitates to pause her surveillance on the clumsy and careless maid before her.

"It's ok, I got it."

Reluctantly, the maid turns her back to Marin and agrees to lead Ari to her room. "This way to your room, miss." Ari finds herself looking back over her shoulder at Marin.

 _It doesn't look like she's doing much cleaning… it looks like she's just spying on Zoro. Geez could the women here be more obsessed with men or what?_ She arrives at her room and the maid hastily takes her leave to continue her surveillance.

XXX

Zoro opens his door and sees Robin on the other side of it.

"I was able to clean the flute last night."

Zoro steps out of his room and into the hallway. "And?" He notices that there's an enormous book in one hand and a delicately wrapped object in the other that is presumably the flute.

"You might be surprised at what I found."

Zoro hears something around the corner and looks past Robin's shoulder, trying to spot what it is. "We're being watched," he whispers under his breath to Robin.

"It might be smart to discuss this elsewhere then," Robin says. "This information could be dangerous." They both duck into his room and make sure that the door is shut before they continue. They both take a seat on his bed.

"So, the flute?"

She takes out the instrument from its wrappings and unfolds it before him. Upon first touching the light, its golden surface shines and its keys sparkle and glisten. The reddish color of the rose gold only adds to it's beauty.

"So, are we gonna sell it or something?"

"Nami would probably like it for that reason, yes," Robin replies, "however, this holds more historic value than you realize."

"Historic value, huh?"

"This isn't just a beautiful flute. Look here." Robin sets the flute on the bed and flips the feathery pages of the book until she lands on page 916.

"Yeah, so what? It's just a picture in a book."

"A picture of a flute that is famous enough to reach a secluded island." Her eyes search the page for the passage she read last night. "It says here that this was the flute of the Fluttering Swordswoman who died in the Florian Triangle in a battle with the marines."

"Isn't that the same swordswoman from the paper?"

"Yes."

"So that means… that somehow her flute ended up here."

"It could be possible that it may have washed up on the shore, since the Florian Triangle isn't far from here. That could be a possibility if a heavy flute such as this one is able to float."

"So what you're getting at is that someone brought it here."

"I found some logs of the island's history in the palace and after flipping through it a while, I found some very valuable information. According to the log, two new villagers came to this island around the same time that the swordswoman died."

"Two? So she brought a crew member with her?"

"That most certainly is a possibility," Robin explains. "However, the other person could have been someone else entirely. I continued reading and found that a marine battleship came to this island to force the Empress to carry out her orders around the same time."

"And you think that someone got lost and was left behind?"

"We don't know. I'll have to do some more digging on the matter," Robin replies. "I don't mean to pry, Zoro, but I have to ask: Why are you invested in the Fluttering Swordswoman being alive?"

"I have my reasons."

She gives him an odd look at first, but then replies, "That's fair enough. I'll let you know what I find."

"Thanks."

Robin carefully wraps the flute up again and takes it with her as she exits the room.

 _That swordswoman… the painting in the palace gym implies that the swordswoman who inspired Kuina is still alive._ He stares at the wall and spaces out, remembering one of the few times that Kuina confided in him…

It is late into the evening, and Zoro is finally coming back inside the dojo to put back his bamboo swords. On his way to the equipment room, he passes by the classroom. The door is slid back a couple inches and he takes a peek inside. He spots Kuina on her knees in front of a painting, her legs tucked underneath her. The last remnants of sunlight peek through the windows, but the rest of the room is coated in shadows. Kuina is grasping her pant legs tightly and tears fall onto her clothes, forming little darkened puddles. The door slides shut and Kuina turns to find Zoro standing there, looking at her curiously. She wipes her eyes defiantly.

"What are you doing here, Zoro?"

"Why are you crying, Kuina?"

"It's nothing. Nothing."

Zoro eyes her in disbelief.

"Did you not hear me? I said it was nothing!" She stands and moves to walk past him, but he stops her with his arm.

"Listen to me! We may be rivals, but I still care if you're hurting!"

"Zoro…"

"So, just tell me what's wrong already." He sits down and looks up to her. She sits down next to him and tells him everything, from the very beginning.

"You see that painting up there?"

"Yeah."

"It's a painting that was done by a friend of mine," Kuina says. "I got a letter from her saying that she won't be coming back." She stares ahead blankly. "And I didn't even get to say goodbye to her. I never told her thank you either. I had too much pride I guess."

"You… had a reason to thank somebody?"

"Oh, come on! Is it really that farfetched?!" She smacks him. "The truth is, if it wasn't for her, I would have quit swordfighting a long time ago."

Zoro stands. "But you've always been a good fighter! Why would you ever want to give up on your dreams?! Your ambitions?!"

"You're wrong, Zoro," she says, "I haven't always been a good swordsman."

"Kuina you can't just say things like that! The Kuina I know has always been strong."

"I am, but I never knew it before Flutter came along. My dad… he's always doubted me just because I'm a girl! He told me that I could practice all I want, but he would never hand down the dojo to me! And that I could never be the greatest swordsman in the world!"

"You… you can't still possibly believe that, right?"

"Flutter… she… gave me the courage to go after my dreams… she said that I could be anything I wanted to be. I owe so much to her… and I never even got the chance to show her how much it meant!"

"Then you just have to find her again someday and tell her! So stop whining your mouth about it since you'll probably see her during your travels again anyway!"

Kuina looks over at him and smiles at his comforting words. _I hope so._

Zoro's memories gently drift into dreams and he falls asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

I know it's been a while, but here is Chapter 10! Again thank you to all of my readers and followers! Your support is awesome and is greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: Again, the only thing I own is my writing skills, not the actual series itself, so there.

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Chapter 10

Ari's a Swordsman? Wado Ichimonji and its Connection with Zoro!

Zoro wakes up that morning and stretches out his arms, yawning loudly. He gets out of bed and his determination to find the Fluttering Swordswoman is greater than ever before. _Kuina died before she could show her gratitude._ _I have to find that swordswoman. I can't afford to wait around for Robin. It's no use trying to track down a specific woman on a island full of them either. I guess I only have one option then: I need help from an insider._ Zoro sleepily stumbles out of his room.

He roams the halls and unknowingly comes across one of the guest rooms. Engraved and painted in gold is the number eight on the door. _I could be wrong, but isn't this Ari's room?_ He creaks open the door to find Ari still bundled under the covers sleeping with her back facing the door. Near the bed are some shopping bags and on the nightstand some sort of book with a receipt as a bookmark. Zoro saunters over to the book, picks up the receipt and takes a look. _The Stony Brook Sword Shop... so she's a swordsman._ Zoro places the receipt back inside the pages of the book, not noticing that it's now upside down, and peers over at her thin build. _It sure doesn't look like it._ Ari rolls over, allowing Zoro to get a better look at her. Her brown and pink locks are splayed all around her in delicate waves and her thick lashes are at rest on her cheekbones. The blankets are pulled right below her chin, restricting his gaze to just her face. Her body shifts under the covers and she sits up to stretch out her arms. The blanket draped around her shoulders slides off, revealing her lacy mint bra underneath. Zoro stands there frozen in place and is unable to tear his eyes off her. Unsure what to do next, his brain struggles to think of a way to escape his impending doom. _Great, now what?_ She rubs her eyes open and turns to see Zoro standing there.

"You… WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM YOU BIG PERVERT?!" She hurriedly wraps the blanket around her chest, stands on the bed and clobbers him on the head with a tightly wound fist.

"GEEZ LADY! You sure pack one hell of a punch!" Zoro flees the room and makes his escape down the hall. _Damn that woman's a hell a lot stronger than she looks!_

"There's more where that came from!" Ari shouts from her doorway, but doesn't go after him. She decides to instead duck back into her room and get ready for her training that day. _It's been awhile since I've worked out with Marguerite and the rest of the women, so I'll do some training in the palace gym since I'm here anyway._ She pads back over to the nightstand where her bag is resting. _Huh, that's strange._ She slips on a tee shirt and digs further into her bag to find her shorts. _Darn it, there's a paint stain. Oh well, they'll get the job done._ After putting on her shorts, she walks down the stairs and through the hallway down to the kitchen to grab some water. She opens the door to the kitchen only to find Luffy sitting in front of the fridge stuffing his face. Sanji is at the stove cooking up some omelets scolding him all the while.

"Luffy would you stop hogging all the food already?" Sanji yells over to Luffy. "We need some of that for breakfast ya know."

"Yeah, but I'm hungry…" Luffy stuffs another meat chunk in his mouth. "Just a couple more bites, Sanji."

"No!" Sanji kicks him and Luffy reluctantly shuts the fridge and sits at the small kitchen table impatiently.

"Hey could you toss me a bottle of water?" Ari says.

"Anything for you, Ari sweeeet!" Sanji opens the fridge and kicks her a bottle of water gracefully.

"Thanks." She catches it. "Oh, and do either of you happen to know where the palace gym is?"

"Nope, not a clue," Luffy responds. She looks over to Sanji.

"No, I only cared to find out where the kitchen and a few… other rooms are," Sanji says.

"Ok, I'll figure it out on my own then." She walks back up the stairs and spots a board with the layout of the palace tacked on it. "Let's see… I'm here and the gym is somewhere in the west wing by the guest quarters." She makes her way to the west wing and spots a set of double doors with a sign above them that reads "gym" in gold lettering. _Here we are._ She grins. Upon walking in, she notices that a stone statue of the Empress has been left among the other weights. _I guess the thousand pound weight wasn't good enough for someone._

Whenever her and the other women train together, they all use the five-hundred-pound weights, one in each hand. She trains with the lighter weights in order to keep up the ruse that she's just like any other villager here. In secret, Ari would train using the thousand-pound weights. In the event that someone catches onto her secret, she has to make sure she's strong enough to keep that person from saying anything ever again. She's never had to go to such extremes before, but her additional training is just a precaution.

Ari gathers up her hair into a ponytail, revealing the tattoo on the back of her neck. She picks up two five-hundred-pound weights, lifting one in each hand. She lifts and lifts until a thick sweat forms on her brow. _It really has been too long. It's hard just to lift the easy weights._ After a few hours of training, she decides to give it a rest and relax on one of the beach chairs. The gym is peaceful and quiet until someone's voice is heard from outside the double doors.

"Hey, isn't this that place the pink-haired lady was looking for?" Luffy opens one of the doors and peeks inside. He walks over to the lawn chairs by the pool and sits next to her. "Hey, pink-haired lady, you missed out on breakfast."

"I know," she replies, "I'll eat later."

"So, um, what's up with you and Zoro?"

"Wha- I don't know what you're talking about." She's shocked at first, but quickly regains her emotional cool. Her face, however, is a different story. They both sit there in silence for a while before Luffy speaks up again.

"Ok, well, I guess I'll be going then." He hops up from the lawn chair and starts toward the door.

"Wait," Ari pipes up, "why did you think there was something between me and Zoro?"

"Oh, nothing." Luffy scratches his head. "You were just asking about him a bunch. So I thought that you guys were close friends or something."

 _He only suspects a friendship? I guess it's better that way. Besides, it's not like there would be anything after what happened this morning._ Her face turns all red at the thought of him seeing not only her in her bra, but also the scar jagged across her chest.

"Hey, you ok, lady?" Luffy walks over to her lawn chair and pinches one of her bright red cheeks. "Your face is all red."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she says and slaps his hand away. _I wonder… it all happened so fast so maybe… maybe he didn't notice my scar after all._

"Ok then, if you say so." Luffy gives her a weird look and is on his way out the door when he turns and says, "Oh yeah, Hancock's fine with you staying here tonight too if you want to."

"I'll think about it," Ari replies.

"Sounds good to me." He smiles. Luffy leaves the gym door ajar when he exits and is a ways down the hall when he says, "Hey, Zoro! Don't forget we're all meeting up for sea beef later!"

"Got it." Zoro approaches the doors to the gym and slips his shirt off as soon as he walks in. Ari sinks down lower in her chair, hoping that he doesn't notice her. Now freshly stripped of his shirt, he goes over to set his things down on a lawn chair when he sees Ari occupying the one he used last time. _Ah, crap! How do I explain that I was in her room to find answers and_ not _to find her half naked?!_

"Hey, um, sorry about this morning." Zoro's primary memory of that morning was, indeed, of her being half naked, but he could have sworn that there was something else he noticed. Something he missed.

Ari's embarrassed, but manages to come up with a smartass response, "It's alright. You could say we're even." She gives him a once over and grins devilishly up at him. Zoro becomes even more flustered at her comment.

Ari takes notice of the long scar running from Zoro's shoulder to his hips. _So he has a scar too… just like the one I have._

"If you wanna get even so bad, then fight me!" Zoro says. "You're a swordsman so you must have a sword. Am I wrong?"

She leans back on her chair casually. "Actually, I lost mine."

"That's a damn shame. A swordsman who loses her sword."

"At least I don't get lost in berry bushes when the path is right in front of me," she comments. "And how would you know that I'm a swordsman anyway?" Her minty eyes glare at him.

 _Damn, why is this woman so intimidating?_

She sighs in understanding. "I thought it was strange that my commission receipt was upside down." She stands and lets her hair down. Zoro is once again embraced in her sweet scent as her hair cascades down to her waist. A lock of hair sifts over an eye and she blows it back into place. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't want to duel." She steps past him.

"Oh yeah? You scared to lose?" He smirks and Ari pauses in her stride. Her body whips back around and slides one of his swords out of its sheath effortlessly. _How the hell-_

"It shouldn't have been that easy for me to steal one of your swords," she says and draws a finger along the back of the blade. "You're weak, Zoro. And I have no interest in dueling a weak opponent."

 _Those words… Those were the same words that…_ she _said…_ "You shut your mouth and give me back my sword!"

"Wado Ichimonji… it's an excellent sword." She hands it back to him with her hand gracefully balancing the blade.

"Excellent swords are a necessity if I'm going to become the world's greatest swordsman." He grins.

 _His ambition… it almost brings back the fire I used to have for that very same goal._ "The world's greatest?"

"And nothing less." His confident smile cocks high up on his face.

She smiles and her stomach growls loudly.

"Let me guess, you missed breakfast, right?"

She nods.

He starts toward the door and stops to turn and look at her when he notices that she's not following him. "You coming or not?"

"Oh, yeah." She walks in stride beside him out the gym door, the two of them on their way to grab some lunch.

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Don't forget to leave reviews! I may own some writing skills, but they can only improve over time and with feedback! Thank you so much!


	11. Chapter 11

Wow, so two chapters uploaded in one day! Enjoy an extra chapter today when you read chapter 11!

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Chapter 11

Lunch and Drinks on Me! Zoro's Theory and Ari's Suspicions!

After a while of walking through the hustle and bustle of the village, Zoro and Ari come across a sea monster restaurant.

 _Isn't this where Luffy and the others were going to meet for lunch?_ "We're here," Zoro says. They step inside and a bulky waitress motions toward some barstools for them to sit on. They both take a seat and a barista promptly greets them from the other side of the bar.

"I'll have some booze and skewered sea monster," they both raise a hand and say at the same time. Ari looks over at him, and he at her. They burst out laughing and let their hands come to rest on the bar. Zoro's hand accidentally brushes Ari's fingers. He stops laughing and pulls his hand away, but a grin stays stuck on his face. The barista sets two large drinks down in front of them.

"Cheers!" Ari clinks her glass with Zoro's and the two of them take a swig. After nearly finishing his drink, Zoro remembers what he needed to ask her about.

"Hey, I need to ask you something," Zoro says. "How often do visitors come to this place?"

She finishes her drink and searches the bottom of her mug, looking for any remaining drops. "I'd assume not very often." She looks over at him curiously and sets down her mug. "Why?"

"Just have a theory I'm working on." He stares ahead, lost in his own thoughts. _If she's alive, then how do I find her?_

Ari eyes him, but decides not to go on about it. "Well, I hope you find what you're looking for," she states.

Before Zoro has a chance to reply, the rest of the crew bursts into the restaurant, matching the cacophony of the room.

"Oooo you guys have meat, right?"

"This is a sea monster restaurant, moron," Sanji cuts in.

"Hey is that Zoro? Yeah it is, it's him. Somehow he beat us here." Usopp peers over Sanji's shoulder. Sanji turns and looks at Zoro and then over to Ari sitting beside him. Then looks back at Zoro. Then back to Ari.

"Wait here," Sanji says to the group. He waltzes over to the barstools and speaks up, "How is it that Mr. Plants-for-Brains can score a date with a lady such as yourself?" Sanji inquires to Ari.

Zoro's face turns red. "Funny since I came in first, _number seven._ And I thought I told you, moron, it's not like that! So would you quit saying it already?"

"Would you quit gloating that by some miracle you got to Sabaody first?! And I can say whatever I want." Sanji walks across the floor and out the door of the restaurant. As he's leaving, he says, "Sorry, Luffy. Guess we'll have to go somewhere else to get food."

"But I want sea monster meat," he pouts.

"We'll get it someplace else," Nami says. "All I want is some lunch so it doesn't matter where I get it." She grabs him by the collar of his vest and drags him out of the restaurant. Usopp and Chopper make kissy faces over to Zoro on their way out and Zoro grits his teeth.

"What a bunch of idiots," he mumbles under his breath.

Ari bursts out laughing, holding a hand to her stomach.

"What are you laughing at?" he shout-asks her.

She takes a moment to suppress her laughter before she responds, "Oh, nothing." _His crew… in some ways they remind me of my old one._

He frowns. Soon after, some steaming meat slices are placed before the two of them. They eat side-by-side without another word passing between them. The silence is left unbroken until they both belch loudly.

"That was pretty good," Ari says and leans on the bar.

"Yeah, sure was," he says. "Hey, by the way, don't listen to Sanji. That cook can be a real pain in the ass."

"Alright." They look back over at each other in sync and their eyes meet. Zoro notices a slight indentation above one of her eyes.

 _A scar? Wonder how it got there. No, I gotta focus._ She turns back to the barista and asks for a refill. A new mug is put in front of her with the booze foaming over the edge. He shakes himself awake. _I need answers._ "You haven't heard of the Fluttering Swordswoman by chance, have you?"

She chokes on her drink and slams it on the bar. "Oh, um..." Cough. Cough. She hits a fist on her chest and finally coughs up her drink. "Yeah, I've heard of her."

"It's strange. We got a newspaper from a while back on our ship. Said she died or something."

"Heard that too."

"So do you know anything or not?" He eyes her.

"No, not really." She takes another swig of her drink. "She died a while back in the Florian Triangle, but that's all I know."

"Hmm." He orders a refill as well. _No, that can't be right. She has to be alive._ The barista slides Zoro's drink down the bar and he drinks it all down right away.

"So… um… why?" She cocks her head at him.

"I have my reasons, and that's all you need to know." He puts a stack of bills down on the bar, pushes himself to his feet, and walks away.

"Hey, you overpaid, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. Drinks on me."

Ari looks at the bills. She turns to say thank you to Zoro, but he's already gone. Suddenly disinterested in finishing her drink, she gets up and leaves the restaurant.

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Be sure to tell me what you think of the bonus chapter that was uploaded today! If you have opinions, suggestions, or anything of the like, I'd love for you as my faithful readers to put it out there! Thank you for your support!


	12. Chapter 12

So, in celebration of Zoro's birthday, I decided to give a hand to all of my awesome followers, favoriters, and readers with one final chapter for tonight! This chapter includes a memory of Flutter's in which her crew dies right before her eyes. Very sad, I know. Please let me know what you think! This chapter is one of my personal favorites! Believe it or not, a part of it is actually based on a true story. But I'll leave it at that. Enjoy!

Also, warning there is some slight slander in this chapter that I understand may be offensive. That is the character in the story talking, not me. Just thought I'd let you know.

Disclaimer: Once again, I own the words, not the series. Eiirchiro Oda gets the credit for that /)^3^(\

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Chapter 12

The Memory of Pheonix! The Fluttering Swordswoman's Painful Past!

 _They have the same spirit as my old crew… I miss them. Emi… Chloe... all of them._ Ari sits with her knees tucked against her chest on the cliff's edge. _This is where I first washed up to the island on that fateful day. The day I killed them…_ The sound of the waves crashing against the cliffside take Ari way back. Back to five years ago when the sea challenged her ship and crew at every turn, each enemy greater than the last…

"Set sail! They may have captured her today, but she won't stay at Impel Down! Not if we have anything to say about it!" Flutter shouts to her crew. They cheer in response, but many carry worried expressions on their faces.

"But isn't that like, a very dangerous prison or something?" Chloe asks.

"No, it's totally safe," Emi counters with her sarcastic specialty. "We won't get a single scratch on us, rainbow head."

"What did you say to me, lesbian?!" Chloe shouts in her face.

"Our own quarrels aren't important right now," Flutter says. "Our main priority is to save Pheonix."

"Why should we have to save the blonde in the first place?" Emi challenges.

Flutter flashes out her sword, the slash whipping through the air and down to the crew. It gives Emi a prompt slice on her nose and knocks her glasses to the deck, shattering them. "She has her moments, but her flames have saved us countless times. Don't any of you ever disregard one of your crewmates again! Is that understood?!" Her confident voice shakes the mast and floorboards of the Grey Symphony.

Her crew, including Emi, salutes in respect. "Yes, ma'am."

Emi takes out a spare pair of glasses from her coat and slides them onto her nose. _Damn that Pheo._

Chloe feels just as strongly about saving Pheonix as the Captain, but still looks worried. _There's no way we'll get out of there alive._

The crew continues sailing along the current, and Flutter sits down to rest. She leans her head back on the side of the ship and her mind drifts along to a couple months ago, when Pheonix was still on the Grey Symphony with them…

The crew is busy eating dinner in the kitchen with Flutter, Emi, and Pheonix sitting at the head of the table.

"I know a lot of big words!" Pheonix protests to Emi, who is teasing her on her blondeness once again.

"Oh yeah, like what?" Emi leans on her hand, clearly amused with the conversation.

"I know what extraction means… I know what exaltation means… I know what abortation means…"

"You mean abortion?"

Phoenix's face comes to a standstill and she looks utterly dumbfounded. A silence fills the room, until everyone bursts out with laughter. Pheo's face turns bright red.

"That's what I meant!"

"Whatever you say, Fe-oh."

"Hey! Don't call me 'ugly' in spanish, Les-bo!" Pheonix shouts and points a fork threateningly at Emi. "And by the way, Flutter, pass me some of your Asian smarts, would ya?"

Flutter takes a swig of her sparkling pomegranate booze. "Sorry, but I think you're a lost cause." The Captain chuckles and the room erupts into another round of laughter. Pheonix takes a moment to stop eating and pointedly pout by stomping a black-heeled boot to the floor. At the same time, her hair ignites into flames.

"You're gonna set the kitchen on fire again, you know," Ashley states calmly.

"See, guys, Ashley agrees with me! I'm on firrrreeee." She licks a finger and touches it to her butt making a 'tssss' sound.

"Yeah right!" the crew exclaims. Pheo shrugs off their dismissal and continues laughing heartily.

Flutter is suddenly snapped awake from her memories by a large commotion at the front of the ship. A crewmember scurries to the side of the ship that Flutter is resting on.

"Captain! A fleet of marine battleships are headed this way!"

"Alright," Flutter says, getting to her feet. She stretches and feels the small picture frame in her pocket jab at her hip. "Let's get this over with."

The marine fleet inches closer and closer to the infamous pirate ship. Orders are heard coming from the battleship and the marines scurry about, no doubt getting ready for the battle ahead.

"Prepare yourselves and ready cannons on all ships!" Momonga orders, both to the subordinates in front of him, and into a transponder snail transmitting to the battleships behind him.  
"Yes, sir!" the marines all salute in unison. The flagship is now face-to-face with the Grey Symphony and Vice Admiral Momonga has his sword extended out at the front.

"Fluttering Swordswoman," he proclaims with his eyes glaring at her. "I, Momonga, stake my pride as a Navy Vice Admiral on stopping you right here!"

"Is that so?" She takes out her own sword and extends it toward the enemy. "ATTACK!"

Her crew advances past her and onto the enemy ship, erupting into complete and total chaos. Flutter unclips her cloak, revealing her leather corset and white flowing cotton skirt underneath. She runs along the bowsprit and leaps over to her opposer, locking their swords. He pushes her off of him and she teeters toward the edge of the battleship's bowsprit. Flutter flips forward onto her fingertips, and launches herself over Momonga and onto the marine deck. She sees a flash of another Vice Admiral, Monkey D. Garp, but is soon distracted with her former opponent. Momonga charges at her and she whips around to face him, just barely blocking his attack. They skirt around each other like this for a while, sliding and clanking their swords against one another. Canon fire from the other marine ships explode, and the fire from the explosions crackle on the Grey Symphony.

 _I don't have time for this._ She looks over to her ship. _I have to hurry and finish him off._ "One sword style… Daibutsu Giri!" A series of powerful sword slashes fly past the Vice Admiral. _This is my most powerful sword attack… This battle will finally be… what- he's dodging all of my attacks!_ She puts more force into her blades, and pushes herself harder and harder, but it's no use.

"You're as persistent as ever, I see." He attempts another attack, but is hastily blocked by Flutter.

 _I only have one option then._ She jumps back from Momonga, and slides her sword back into its sheath. She hurriedly pulls her flute out of her waistband and places it by her lips. Her victorious smile cocks high up on her face as she glares at the Vice Admiral.

"Get down men!" Momonga says. "Don't get in her line of fire!"

"Everyone! Get down!" Flutter commands to her crew. _I don't have any more time, I need to act NOW!_

Another order from farther down the ship is heard, "Stay up!" the voice barks.

 _This is for you, Pheonix…_ "The song of the Firebird!" She closes her eyes and absorbs her musical energy. Her devil fruit powers breath life into her instrument, the inner workings coming alive right before her eyes. The harsh and quick notes pour out, tugging the heartstrings of everyone in her path. Their hearts are tugged so harshly, that the music slices their hearts in mere moments. Fire from both the canon fire and the music flares up on all ships, pirate and marine alike. One by one, bodies thud against the deck, dead. She tucks her flute back into her waistband and opens her eyes. All of a sudden, she feels her stomach violently twist and drop down to her feet.

"What-" She drops hopelessly to her knees. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" She shouts up to the Vice Admiral towering above her.

"Him? He didn't do anything," a voice that she recognizes as Monkey D. Garp's says, "I just did a little bit of Conquerors Haki on your crew, that's all." He chuckles.

She looks all around her, the marines are still down and out of the path of her music notes, alive and well. Her crew, on the other hand…

 _They stayed up… even though I ordered them to stay down… and now… now…_

Flutter cries out in agony at the loss of her crew. The fire that had erupted on the Grey Symphony reaches the gunpowder barrels and her pirate ship explodes. Splinters and planks of wood scatter all around the Marine Flagship. The flag itself, landing directly in front of her kneeling form, the corners burning to ash right before her eyes. She frantically grabs at the scrap that used to be her flag, _their_ flag. _This… can't possibly be real… this_ has _to be a dream! A very bad dream! Nononononono! NO!_

"NOOOOO!" she sobs holding the burning flag to her chest, not caring if it scorches her. Her grief completely immobilizes her as she takes in the dead bodies surrounding her. The images of her crewmates' still-opened eyes and their weak and empty corpses are burned and ingrained into her memory. She kneels there, her spine arched back and her head lolling behind her body. Her eyes empty and drain of all emotion. Her arms fall lifelessly to her sides and her hands lay on the splintered wood. Her hand develops into a tightly wound fist as she desperately grasps onto the remains of her flag. Momonga delivers the final blow across her chest and blood sprays out from the freshly inflicted wound.

 _So… this is how it ends. So be it._ She closes her eyes and allows her limp body to be toppled over the edge of the ship by the Vice Admirals. She lands on a splintered plank of wood and her ears can barely make out the orders shouted from above and the cheers that follow. The deafening sound of her crewmates' bodies hitting the water's surface as they are thrown overboard overwhelm her. _I'm… sorry… Emi… Chloe… Pheo... you guys… I… failed you._ Forced to relive her crew's death in her mind over and over, she falls unconscious and drifts aimlessly along the sea, barely staying alive, but, at the same time, tortured to still exist at all.

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I hope you all enjoyed the three chapters I put up today to celebrate the birthday of the one and only three-style-swordsman, Zoro! Happy birthday, Zoro, we love you! (but not in a creepy way) And to my readers, until next time!


	13. Chapter 13

Wow this month sure has been productive! Here's another chapter out there for my loyal followers, fans, favoriters, and everyone else who makes writing rewarding! Love you guys!

Disclaimer: Again, don't own the anime, just like writing about it, thanks.

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Chapter 13

The Girl of Secrets and Nightmares! Worry Amongst Friends!

Ari is suddenly shaken awake. She flings open her eyes to find Marguerite's concerned face.

"I've been looking for you all day! You didn't come home last night, so I was getting worried." Marguerite folds her into a tight embrace.

Ari takes a moment to compose herself after her reminiscent nightmare before pulling away and explaining. "Oh, sorry," Ari says, rubbing her head. "I stayed the night at the palace last night."

"The palace?"

"Yeah the Straw Hats invited me to stay there with them."

"But you hate pirates…" Marguerite says. "Though I can say that I'm not surprised that the Empress would allow it since it was probably a request from Luffy."

Ari feels something warm staining her cheeks and uses her hand to wipe it away. _Tears?_

"Anyway, Ari, I'm worried about you," Marguerite expresses. "I have been for a while."

Ari just looks at her blankly.

"You used to sleepwalk or start crying in your sleep all the time. This happened almost every night when you first came here. And just now… even though your nightmares have been held at bay for quite a while… it happened again." Her eyes begin to tear up. "I'm your friend… can you not tell me what troubles you so much?" Marguerite looks at Ari.

Ari stands and her eyes drift distantly to a past that the whole world knows only half of. She alone knows the rest. She alone knows for a fact that she survived. _No one, not even Marguerite, can know who I am._ "It is not your place to know." The last remnants of the evening sun brush Ari's shoulders before disappearing completely as she trudges into the forest. Marguerite stays kneeling on the cliff's edge and is at a loss as to how to help her friend.

After staring ahead blankly for a good hour, Marguerite pushes herself to her feet and through the forest to her and Ari's cottage. _She's probably home by now. Maybe I just need to give her some time. She'll tell me when she's ready._ Girly squeals become louder and louder as Marguerite inches out of the forest before quieting down again. She breaks through and into the clearing where her cottage is, only to find a hoard of girls searching the perimeter.

"Not here," one girl calls to the rest.

"Or here," another says.

"Men are really good at hide and seek," one adds more notes to the list of observations already taken down.

 _Looks like the girls are out searching for one of the men again._ She sighs and steps inside her cottage, shutting the door behind her. She looks all around the house for Ari, but finds no trace of her. She sighs again and slides down to the kitchen floor, putting her head in her hands. _What am I going to do?_ She looks up and takes in all of the colorful plants decorating around the length of the walls on the floor. All of them are carefully placed in large ceramic pots painted in brilliant colors. _Huh?_ She eyes one particular plant, a moss. _Has it… grown legs? It looks soft… huh._ She tiptoes over to the suspicious plant and runs a hand along its green surface.

"WOULD YOU QUIT PETTING ME?! I'M NOT A DOG!" All of a sudden Zoro pops out from behind the potted plant.

"Ah! What are you doing here?!" Marguerite pulls out her bow and readies an arrow and aims it at him.

"It's not what it looks like. Those girls were chasing me and this was the only place to hide!"

"You men sure are funny creatures." She tucks her bow away. "And here I thought that everyone wanted companionship." _Is that it, Ari? You just don't want companionship?_

Zoro peeks behind the curtains and out the window to see if it's safe to come out of 'hiding'. _Can't they just quit already?! How long are they gonna keep searching anyway?_ Zoro frowns.

"So do all men dislike women?" Marguerite asks.

"No," he says.

"But you do?"

"Just don't like being stuck with them."

"I see." _I wonder… Ari's nightmares came back ever since those pirates got here…_ "So are you as true to your word as your captain?"

"Huh?"

"I mean have you changed Ari's mind about pirates?"

"My only goal was making sure she doesn't diss my captain," he says. "I could care less what she thinks of the lot of them."

"Well, hopefully she doesn't view Luffy that way anymore."

"Yeah."

An awkward silence fills the room before Marguerite speaks up again, "So I've heard from Ari that you've been to the cliff's edge."

 _She… told her about me…?_ "Uh, yeah. What about it?"

"It's a very special place to her for some reason. Maybe it's just the pomegranates." She laughs lightly. "But I think that there's another reason she goes there so much. In all this time I've known her, she's never once told me about it. She can be so secretive sometimes." Marguerite shakes her head at this.

"She doesn't need to say anything about it if she doesn't feel like it." _Huh, so she has something that she's kept secret like me… Kuina…_

"I guess not," she says, "but it still worries me sometimes." Marguerite eyes him with curiosity. _I wonder… do both him and Ari have parts of their lives kept secret?_

"It's stupid to worry about it."

"No, it's not," Marguerite asserts. "It's not just about the cliff's edge. She used to have terrible nightmares, and they came back recently. Something happened to her and she won't even tell me what it is. Do you have any idea how this makes me feel as her friend?"

"Well, it's not like you can change it."

"I just… want to help her."

Zoro nods and looks out the window again, deeming it safe, and opens the door to leave.

"Just… let me know if you find her, ok? I don't know where she is right now."

"Yeah, yeah." He takes his leave.

It's considerably late in the evening by the time that Zoro left Marguerite and Ari's cottage. He begins thinking more deeply on what Marguerite said about Ari. _If your friends are worried about you… does that make it right, or wrong, for you to keep whatever it is from them?_ He walks from the cottage to town and pauses for a moment, partially because he's lost in his new train of thought, and also just trying to figure out which way the palace is.

"Hey girls! There's the one we were looking for earlier!" a huge girl proclaims and points a finger toward Zoro. The fleet of girl warriors come after him and Zoro remains frozen in place, terrified of what's to come. He finally snaps awake and runs like hell in the opposite direction of the girls.

"Damn, why are they so fast?!"

"We won't let you get away this time!"

 _Guess I'll have to let my swords handle this one._ He turns a sharp corner and right when he's about to draw his swords, a hand grabs onto his collar and drags him into a dark alley. "What the hell-"

"Shh," a woman says and cups a hand over his mouth, "they'll find you." Zoro feels something squishy against his back and his face flushes. A stampede of footsteps races around the corner, and a crowd of girls run past the alleyway where Zoro is hiding.

"Hey, where'd he go?"

"Gosh darn it! We lost him again!"

"Oh well, better luck next time, girls."

"Men are really fast… interesting… interesting."

Bursts of conversation and disappointed sighs erupt down the street away from the alley. The girly voices become softer and more distant as they move farther away.

Zoro and the woman wait there with his back against her chest in the alleyway for a few more moments. Her heartbeat pulses against his back steadily and he breathes in the fresh scent of her hands.

 _An orchard… wait… this chick again?!_

"It should be safe now," Ari says and lets him out of her embrace. She peers around the corner to make sure that the crowd of girls have left.

"Could have handled that myself, ya know."

Ari looks back at him and chuckles. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"By the way, I've decided to stay another night at the palace with you and your crew," she says. "I was just on my way there when I heard all the commotion."

He nods. "Guess we should get going then." He turns out of the alleyway and looks back to find Ari not following him. She gives him a confused look and goes the other direction. Zoro stumbles over his words and ultimately opts to walk alongside her, with Ari leading the way in silence.

The sun has just been laid down to rest, and most of the female warriors have left the streets and are safely tucked away in their homes. Zoro sneaks a glance over at Ari, and at the same time, Ari peeks over at him. Just as their eyes meet, they swiftly force their glances elsewhere, each pretending that nothing happened.

 _Just a second ago, I was completely calm, but now… my heart's beating so fast it's scary._ Ari thinks to herself.

They stroll down the streets in a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Before long, they arrive at the palace gates and Zoro recalls what Marguerite disclosed to him earlier: " _Something happened to her and she won't even tell me what it is. Do you have any idea how this makes me feel as her friend?"_

Zoro breaks the silence, "Your friend was worried."

"You mean Marguerite?"

He nods.

"She'll be fine. She knows I can take care of myself," Ari says and turns to face him. "And what do you think you're doing getting involved in my business anyway?" Ari puts a hand on her hip.

"No, what do you think _you're_ doing?" he replies. "She cares about you. I understand where you're coming from, but doesn't she deserve to know why you're hurting?"

"She…" Ari stutters and realizes what Marguerite must have told him and is now completely enraged, "told you about them, didn't she?! My nightmares?"

"Yeah, so what if she did?"

"She shouldn't have done that, it wasn't her place!" Ari tromps away from him, about to go through the palace gates when he reaches a hand to her arm, holding her there.

"We all have things that we keep secret. Hell, so do I," he explains, "but when others start hurting because of it… that's when it becomes need-to-know." Ari shakes him off of her.

"Yeah well, some things," she says, "aren't for anyone to know." She enters the palace, and shuts the door abruptly behind her. Zoro stays at a standstill outside and wonders which line of thinking is correct. Unable to come up with an answer, he goes inside, and not finding Ari anywhere in sight, retires to his room upstairs to get some sleep.

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Don't forget to leave some feedback! It's greatly appreciated! Amateur writers (such as myself) have much room for improvement and every little bit counts! Thanks so much, until next time!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, just own my own creative spirit that's all.

And without further adieu, I give you chapter 14! Only two more chapters left of part 1 after this folks!

I know it's been a long haul for this fanfiction, and your patience is greatly appreciated!

Part two should be done by Christmas! That's twelve more chapters of the Strawhats that we all know and love!

Until next time!

p.s. I've had someone vector a map of the Amazon Lily palace for me as my imagination sees it. If you'd like to see the map look me up in deviantart. Just search for, "PheonixDino" and you'll see three deviations. One is the news coo from chapter one, and the other two are the first and second floor of the palace. Please note that you must capitalize the "P" and the "D" to find me. Thanks again!

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Chapter 14

Potential Danger for the Straw Hats? Tension Builds!

After getting back to his room, Zoro tosses and turns in bed for hours, and is strangely unable to sleep. _Dammit, why can't I get to sleep already?! Well, in that case…_ He climbs out of bed and grabs his swords beside him on his way out. _Nothing some weights can't fix._ He intends on heading toward the gym, but not noticing that it's directly across from his room, he heads down the hallway in search of it. He continues to wander along the guest quarters hallway when he hears a loud thud in one of the nearby rooms. He draws one of his swords and swings the door open, only to find Ari fumbling to get out of her blanket on the floor. Assured that it's not an intruder, Zoro tucks his sword away. He walks over to her bedstand to turn the lamp on, when all of a sudden, her hand grabs his ankle. She mumbles something in her sleep and her nails dig sharply into his flesh.

"Hey would you quit it already?" He tries to shake her off of him, but is unsuccessful and ends up stooping down on the floor. She's now untangled from the blankets, and Zoro puts a hand on her shoulder to wake her up.

"Stop it! I won't let you, you bastard! How dare you! My… cr… " She slaps him in the face clumsily with the hand that was originally gripping his ankle. "My friends… Emi… Pheonix… they're all dead," she mumbles, "...pirates…"

"YOU'RE REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF! Would ya wake up already?!" He wraps his hands around her wrists to shake her awake.

Her eyes flash open and she blinks away the foggy tears clouding her vision. _Zoro… what's he doing here?_ She takes note of her wrists, taken captive by Zoro's calloused hands. He releases her from his grasp and gets to his feet. Ari fumbles off of the floor and says, "Ok, so what exactly are you-" Her step falters and she stumbles forward. Zoro reaches out and secures her against his chest. With her face resting there, she is overwhelmed with how solid he feels underneath her. A distinct smell comes off of him in waves. Not man-stink, but the same sort of musk that caught on the wind a few days prior. She finds herself instantly enveloped in it and it takes a little more self-control than she would have originally thought to pull away from him. And even after Ari pushes herself off of him, the warmth from his body seems to spread all over her, especially in her face. She's grateful that the room is too dark for him to notice. As she struggles to regain her composure, her legs are even more wobbly than before due to his touch. "As I was saying," she continues, "what are you doing in my room?"

"Heard a noise. Thought it was an intruder."

Ari gnaws at her lip. "Oh," she says. "I guess I'll just be going back to bed then."

"Ok, do what you want." He lingers there, playing for time and secretly hoping she'll ask him to stay. The orchard scent that hangs on her skin is toying and torturing his mind unlike anything else he's ever experienced. The night coats the entirety of the room, but the moon shines through the window, allowing him to take in not only her scent through his nose, but the sight of her with his eyes. He notices a scar just barely reaching above the low neckline of her top. _I knew there was something else. There's a scar on her chest. And she mumbled something about a pirate killing her friends… This must be one of those nightmares Marguerite was talking about…_ "You know-"

"Well, goodnight!" she interrupts him out of fear from what he was going to say next. She hurriedly climbs into bed and wraps herself in her blanket and feigns sleep.

Zoro flashes one last look in her direction and she can feel his puzzled gaze boring into her. "Night." He paces over to the door and clicks it shut behind him as he leaves.

Ari breathes a sigh of relief. _Good. I have no idea how his sentence would end, but it was probably best to stop it before it went all the way to its period. That way mine doesn't end up possibly skipping nine months._ She lies awake in her bed, tossing and turning restlessly. This is partly because of her nightmare, but even more so because of Zoro. _Little by little… I'm starting to not care about the walls I've worked so hard to put up the past five years. I've never cared for anyone this much before so why now? I was always too focused on my goals to even consider something like this… Besides, he's after the Fluttering Swordswoman: me. He already knows too much…_ Eventually, she gives up all hope of getting any sleep and groans in frustration. Ari tosses a pillow to the wall in her restlessness and is amused by her own punny thoughts. _No wonder they call it a throw pillow._ She laughs to herself as she rolls out of bed, perhaps too literally, and crashes down to the floor once again. She stays perfectly still for a moment, half of her hoping that Zoro is long gone and hadn't heard her fall, and the other half hoping he would come back to check for more "intruders". She shakes her head in defiance to bring herself back to reality and stumbles to her feet.

She tiptoes outside her room and goes down the stairs to the foyer and means to go outside to grab a breath of fresh air, when she hears someone whispering nearby. She sneaks closer to the source and finds that it's coming from inside a janitor's closet. There's a duster and cleaning basket deposited in front of the door. She presses her back against the wall as she carefully slides closer to eavesdrop. _It sounds like a woman and man talking via snail phone… the only snail phone that I've ever seen on the island is with the Empress in her room… so why would a janitor have it?_ She clears her mind and quiets her thoughts in order to overhear the conversation.

"Investigation… yes sir… ships… no sir, not yet… Straw Hats…"

Ari's sharp intake of breath is so alarmingly audible that the person inside the closet abruptly hangs up and slams the receiver back into place on the snail phone. Ari scurries over to the open door beside the janitor's closet and runs inside for cover. She is unsure of what the room is, but is terrified at being discovered and she quickly closes the door behind her. Heels click along the tile as the unknown janitor rushes out of the janitor's closet. Two pooling shadows pause a second too long in front of the door that guards Ari's hiding place. Her back rests against the door and she holds her breath but it isn't enough for her to feel secure. She swears that her pounding heartbeat is going to relay through the door and betray her position. Finally, the mystery heels click along past her, and continue back to where they originated. Ari lets out a sigh of relief. _Whoever that call was to, it was clear that they mean harm to Zoro's crew…_ Ari catches herself and is surprised that she is concerned for the pirates that she held both hate and fear for mere days earlier. She sighs irritably. _Since when do I look out for a pirate anyway?_


	15. Chapter 15

Only one more chapter after this one until part two! I hope you enjoy!

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CHAPTER 15

Attack on Zoro! Tear Down the Walls of Hesitation!

"Hey, wake up," someone grumbles above her.

"Hmm… " Ari stretches out her arms and feels a jolt of pain go down her back and she hisses through her teeth. The first thing she spots are black boots placed widely apart in front of her. She is surprised to see that her current company is Zoro. She looks beyond the irritably handsome man in front of her and finds herself in the middle of a tropical forest of sorts. "Where… are we?" _Did I end up falling asleep outside somewhere after all?_

"I was hoping you could tell me." He places his hands on his hips and surveys his surroundings once more. "I got stuck in this place somehow, and looked for the light coming from the hallway last night, but never found it."

"Oh." _That's right… I stumbled into a room after overhearing that maid last night… ah crap! And I closed the door behind me, so he never found the exit! I rested against the door and fell asleep so that means…_ Ari twists around to see if it is indeed the door her back is resting against, but a sharp pain travels the length of her spine again, and she doubles over from the pain. She presses a hand against her back, futilely thinking it will make the pain dissipate. The ache in her back is almost forgotten when she remembers her and Zoro's encounter the night before. She feels her face go hot and is hoping that it will go unnoticed in the dark shade of the forest, but the expert swordsman isn't blind, and most certainly is no fool either.

"Need some _help_?" He extends a hand down to her and a grin hikes up on his face mischievously.

"Haha, funny." She smirks right back at him speaking the unspoken "as if!", but accepts his gesture and allows him to help her up. As a result, she's able to get a much better view of the room. She takes note of the thriving greenery surrounding them and the mist that is gathered all around it, nurturing it with the gentle and cool caress of rainwater. All of a sudden, something moves in the plants beside her. Ari initially recoils in fear, but feels foolish as soon as she sees it's only one of the island's many Boa Constrictors. A Boa Constrictor that, in fact, only poisons men. _One shouldn't be that big a deal-_ Suddenly, more snakes pour out of the jungle and slither towards them at an alarming pace. Ari grimaces in both fear and irritation and soon there's a whole army of snakes banded together, determined to sink their fangs in the man beside her. She places a hand on Zoro's forearm, and the reason why she's touching him escapes her memory since she can't help but to feel how warm and solid he is underneath her palm. She feels the rippling muscles that reside there and forcing the sensation out of her mind is a much larger endeavor than she would have thought. Coming back into reality, Ari glances behind her and relieved that the door is indeed still behind them, she prepares to run in order to save the directionally challenged swordsman. Zoro, however, seems indifferent as he draws his swords, ready to slice the life out of the poisonous creatures charging at them.

"What are you doing?!" Ari screams at him. "They're venomous to men, and that includes their blood too!"

Zoro only briefly considers the idea of running, but is persuaded instantly when a mass of charging snakes, equally as large as the first, comes at them from the other side as well. His face contorts into a panicked state as he runs alongside Ari out the door and across the grand foyer.

"Moss head, what now?!" the cook shouts irritably, walking down the hallway going from the kitchen to the foyer. One hand holds a frying pan as he flips a pancake, and the other is sporting a cigarette. "How dare you put our dear Ari sweet in danger!"

"Would ya shut your trap?!" Zoro says and curses under his breath as he feels a slight sting against his skin, but the adrenaline soon blocks it out and makes his arm go numb.

At the smell of freshly cooked pancakes, Ari suddenly changes course and makes a huge u-turn around the edge of the foyer over to Sanji, snatches the pancake, and runs off again joining Zoro before he has time to get lost. _These taste just like Marguerite's pancakes… yum!_ She manages to sneak in a couple more bites before shouting over her shoulder to Sanji, "Good luck with the poisonous snakes by the way!"

Ari barely picks up on a female voice that joins Sanji's poetic speech when Zoro cuts in a few words of his own to her. "You just had to concentrate on your stomach didn't you?!"

Ari laughs good heartedly as the two of them barrel up the stairs and away from the impending snake storm.

XXX

After bolting up the stairs and into the west wing, Zoro and Ari run the length of the hall and panic as the snakes hiss down their necks. They duck into the last room on the left at the last minute, and the snakes continue their rampage and accidentally tumble down the stairs at the end of the hall. Their breath comes in short gasps as they sit there side by side against the door. The tumbling of the snakes causes a huge ruckus and Ari and Zoro look over at each other and their eyes meet. Ari attempts to hold in her laughter, but her efforts are in vain since she can see that he is just as amused as she is. Their laughter builds up inside of them until finally, they both burst out laughing.

"We sure taught them a thing or two!" Ari exclaims with her back still bent over and her hand on her stomach, trying to suppress her laughter.

"That's for sure!" he replies as laughter continues to pour out of him. Ari had never heard such a harmonious sound. The humorous chuckle travels to her ears and she finds herself unable to get enough of it, enough of _him._ She leans in to whisper something in his ear when she notices the deep red liquid pouring down his arm out of two miniature gashes.

"You… um… kind of have a…" Ari gulps and points down to his arm.

His laughing quiets down, but only slightly as he lifts his arm up to inspect it. "So?" He shrugs nonchalantly.

"Those snake bites are poisonous to men! We have to get you to a doctor right away!" Ari jumps to her feet and reaches down to him urgently.

He stands and sets his eyes on her intently. The grin that is now irresistible to Ari surfaces. He stands with his body mere inches from hers and places his hands on her shoulders. "And you think I haven't lived through worse?" His voice still carries amusement, but there's an underlying tone that she can't quite pick out. His expression changes and the snake bite and the blood running down his arm is left completely forgotten. The intense gaze boring into her reminds her of the the same one he gave her when they first officially met at the cliff's edge. That warm feeling she felt before is back with a vigor and the butterflies in her stomach stir uncontrollably. Her heart is pounding out of her chest and she swears that even Zoro can hear it, or maybe even feel it due to their close proximity. Her judgement becomes rather clouded as she debates on what his next move will be. She finds herself hoping that he might lean his face down to hers and put her curiosity to bed, perhaps even _literally_. But at the same time she still harbors doubts about if _this_ was to happen and how she would manage to hide her true identity afterwards. Zoro's hands move up to cup her face, and she lays her thoughts aside for something that is much more compelling.

Zoro can't help but to notice how soft her skin is, and also can't help but to ponder at how much softer her lips are, and how it would feel if they were to meet his. His gaze bores intently into her and he can see that she is ready to surrender and let down the walls that she's put up. He also notices slight hesitation that is buried much deeper under her lustful gaze. It is only slight, but her eyes still carry that doubt and uncertainty to go through with what he has in mind. He remains very still, partly because he's unsure of what to do next, and partly because he's afraid to admit that Ari's managed to get to him. _If I do this, right here, right now… does that mean I'd lose the battle of self control?_ Zoro's always made sure to not get into the habit of losing battles, but he senses that this is a different type of battle, and one in which the loss of self control is kind of the point of the exercise. He tucks a stray lock of pink hair behind her ear with one hand, and uses the other to run a thumb along her pink, full lips. His eyes meet hers once more, asking the unspoken right of passage. She nibbles on the inside of her lower lip, debating for a second, before subtly nodding her head and giving him permission to continue. He leans closer still, and right as their lips are about to meet for the very first time in the throes of passion and longing, the door is kicked down by a furious, and blood coated Sanji.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: One Piece, again, is owned by One Person. That one person being Oda, not myself. Thanks.

Alright this is the last chapter of part one of this fanfic! It's taken quite a while to get this far and I want to thank all of my readers for sticking with it! Part two will be coming soon, I hope you enjoy!

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CHAPTER 16

The Forgiveness of Friends! Ari and Zoro's Denial!

"Well, it doesn't look like you'll have any lasting damage, so that's good," Chopper says. "But I want to keep monitoring you just to make sure."

Sanji nods.

"And I still think that I should give you a full examination too," Chopper argues.

"Forget it. It's not necessary." The snake bites on Zoro's arm are already scabbed over, and he thinks that there's no need for any fancy treatment since he feels fine. He also just wants to rub in how much more man he is than the dumbass cook on the examination table in the middle of the room.

A maid escort, Marin, had led Chopper, Sanji, Marguerite, Zoro, and Ari to one of the many examination rooms that are in a hospital that is located under the Palace after Sanji had beaten all the snakes singlehandedly. Or in this case, singlefootedly. The hospital is conveniently located right by the servants' quarters and has on-site doctors and surgeons in case of an emergency.

"Damn it, mosshead!" Sanji sits up on the examination table.

"It's not my fault that you didn't know the blood was poisonous!"

"Not that, you idiot! You put our dear Ari in danger, and Marin, and Marguerite as well!" Sanji glares disapprovingly at his crewmate.

"Would ya calm down already?!" Zoro sneers.

"Oh yeah, fight me!" Sanji springs off of the examination table and goes head to head with the green-haired swordsman.

"Actually, Sanji, Zoro's right," Ari intervenes. "The snakes are only poisonous to men."

Sanji breathes a sigh of relief and says, "That's a relief." He takes out a cigarette and lights it.

"But how did the snakes go from upstairs and then rampaging into the foyer over at Sanji and me?" Marguerite inquires.

"That's true." A puff of smoke escapes Sanji's lips. "They were even more enraged too."

"Excuse me," Marin finally speaks up, "but I think I know what happened."

Everyone looks over at Marin to hear her explanation.

She looks over at Zoro. "You said that they fell down the stairs at the end of the west wing, right?"

Zoro nods.

Marin continues, "There's a hallway at the end of that staircase and a door that leads to the lounge, which connects to the foyer," she explains. "That must be how they got into the foyer and back to you guys."

"At least the Empress made sure that they were put back in the garden after Sanji knocked them all out," Marguerite says.

 _Before the trip to the medical room…_

"That was strange," Sanji says as he smokes his cigarette. He is no longer flipping the pan in his hand since Ari had stolen the pancake from him. Marguerite walks from the hall to the foyer to see what was keeping him, and watches with bewilderment as the army of snakes chase after Zoro and Ari up the stairs and into the west wing.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

A few minutes later, Sanji replies, "Sounds like a storm's coming." He looks up to the ceiling and is enjoying the intricately painted naked angels decorating its surface. Marguerite notices a maid coming out of a doorway, with a duster and notepad and pen in hand. The maid begins dusting the snake-embossed railing of the stairs next to the doorway when all of a sudden, the same snakes that were chasing Zoro and Ari earlier, come out of that same doorway and barrel straight for her and Sanji.

"A storm coming from the hallway!" Marguerite points to an open door right across from them.

Sanji places a hand on her shoulder reassuringly and says, "I can handle this, my lady."

"Wait-" Marguerite's voice is left unheard as Sanji charges forward and leaps into the air. His kick lands on the army of snakes, and their blood sprays around the exquisite floor as Sanji kicks the crap out of the hoard of reptiles, knocking them all unconscious. "Their blood is…" Marguerite sighs in frustration, "poisonous."

After leaving the medical room and entering into the hallway outside of it, Marguerite scuffs to Ari's side cautiously.

"Hey."

"Hey," Ari replies.

"Are we ok? I'm really sorry about telling Zoro about your nightmares, you know that." Marguerite places a hand affectionately on her friend's shoulder. "Can we move past that?"

Ari thinks back and wonders if she can. She remembers how badly she failed her crew back in the Florian Triangle five years ago, and decides that there are worse things that Marguerite could have done. Did she tell a pirate about her nightmares when she shouldn't have? Yes, she did, but it was only out of concern for Ari and this is something that Ari now realizes. _She was only telling him out of concern for me, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I guess I just didn't want Zoro to think I was weak, and fragile._ "We can." Ari smiles at her friend and puts a hand on her shoulder as well.

"You like him don't you?" Marguerite asks and eyes her. "That's why it took you longer to let go of what I told him than usual, right?"

Ari looks down to her feet. _It's true that I didn't want him to view me as weak, but could it really be because of something much bigger than that?_ She thinks back to earlier, before Sanji burst in on her and Zoro. Her face ignites all over again thinking of how his hands were holding her face and how his lips were mere inches away from joining hers. _He's so strong and powerful, yet his touch was so gentle._ She couldn't help but to put one of her own hands to her cheek, and feel the spot where Zoro's hands were about an hour ago. _Who am I kidding? Of course it's something more than me just not wanting him to see my weaknesses… and it's more than me wanting to conceal my identity for that matter…_ She shakes herself awake and notices that Marguerite's still eyeing her curiously. She laughs to herself and says, "Well, I'll just have to get over it." Ari walks aways down the corridor, leaving Marguerite by the medical room door, and spots Zoro going down to the east wing, definitely not the way to the stairs. At first, she feels like running like hell in the other direction, but ultimately decides to help him out instead. "It's this way, you know."

He whips around and is surprised to find Ari at the end of the hall he's walking down. He thinks back to an hour ago, when they were alone, and coincidentally in _his_ room, of all places. He can recall her lustful gaze that was beaming into him, and her lips that were mere inches away from his own, before that dumbass cook had to kick the door down and interrupt them. Color creeps its way up into his face, and he makes his best attempt at pushing it away, but he is powerless against it. He doesn't know what to say, so he just ends up replying, "Yeah, I knew that." He shuffles toward her, and takes note of how she waits for him to be by her side again before continuing walking to the stairs. To his surprise, she remains silent as they walk, not even inquiring about what happened, or rather _almost_ happened between them. And he is perfectly fine with that. He never enjoys talking about his feelings, unless they involve how he feels about swords. The answer to that question is obvious, and he can easily answer that any time, but he is very unsure of the answer to the kinds of questions he thinks Ari has running through her mind. He finds himself looking over at her often, and each time, she is still focused on the path ahead of them. But the thing he notices the most is the smile that lights up her face and makes her even more alluring to him. He looks back at the path, and then again at her, this time more discreetly, and she peeks over at the same time. They turn their heads away, just as in sync as when they turned their heads to each other. They both pretend like nothing is happening, like there isn't this indescribable connection that links them together, not just as swordsmen, but as something much deeper. A connection between two human beings, or rather _super_ human beings, that neither the pirate or the ex-pirate have the courage to confess.

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Your opinion is valuable to me and greatly appreciated however it can only be made known by leaving a review! Please feel free to let me know what you thought of part one so I may use your helpful feedback to make part two! Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you soon!

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D


	17. Deleted Scenes Part One

Writer's block can be a real pain and whenever I came across it my beta-reader and I wrote some random bullshit which helped a little bit. These are just some deleted scenes from part one that I thought some of you might enjoy. If not, not a big deal. Personally, I think they're hilarious.

*PLEASE READ none of the things mentioned in this 'deleted scenes' chapter actually happens in the fanfic. It is just some random crap. Regardless, enjoy!*

**ANOTHER NOTE: some of these may or may not make sense you may need to read back to the chapters in **bold** lettering to understand why these are funny.**

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 **CHAPTER 7**

what if it wasn't dust? what if it was... cocaine?!

holy crack.

pot twist.

 **CHAPTER 8**

An awkward silence fills the room. Suddenly, Luffy's tumble rummies. "Well, when's dinner?"

Sanji bursts through the door and answers promptly, "RIGHT NOW!" He powers up and throws three cheeseburgers at Luffy. "Burgeriken!"

Luffy stretches his mouth and grabs all three burges at once. "YUM!"

Sanji stirs up a giant bowl of lettuce. "LETTUCE! TOMATO! ONION! GREEN PEPPER! COTTAGE CHEEEEEEESE!" He stirs them all up in a hurry of stirring. "SALAAAAAD!" He tosses it at Luffy. "TOOOOOSSSS!"

The salad is flung from the bowl by Sanji's mighty kick and goes all over in the air.

Luffy does a furry fist punch fury storm and grabs all the items and stuffs them in his mouth. "OHM! YUM!"

Sanji's not done. Luffy's not done. Luffy's stomach is not done. It has to continue.

Sanji fries Steak 'Em Steakburgers really quickly with his super hot curly eyebrow grill. Meanwhile, "Spider Dance" from Undertale plays. The steak burgers sizzle and pop and Sanji flings them as he finishes them at Luffy. "STEAK UM SLICES HADOKEN!"

Luffy sits still and pops his mouth open each time a steak em comes his way. Sanji threw them with pin-point accuracy, and got a 100 points every time one threw directly down Luffy's throat. Finally Sanji hit a critical hit and Luffy's stomach was defeated.

"Um… yummmmmmm…" Luffy sighs, lying on his back and patting his stomach. "Thaaaaaat waaaaas gooood."

The girls squee at how awesome Sanji was just now.

Sanji makes a pose with his frying pan. "Only the greatest chefs can satifsfy such a hungry stomach with so little food." Then he walks way casually like it was nothing.

The new girl sighs. "Isn't he just awesome?"

 **CHAPTER 10**

"So, what did you see this morning?" Ari asks Zoro.

"Um…"

"Um…"

A portal opens. "Hello."

"Who the hell are you?!" they both ask.

"I brought someone."

"What?"

Rafiki comes out of the portal. "Let's go to Upendi!"

"What?!"

Shield opens another portal to a tropical paradise.

"We're already on a tropical island!" Ari yells.

Rafiki shakes his head. "It doesn't matter, it's in the past!"

"No," Zoro says.

Rafiki shrugs and jumps back through the first portal. "Well, I tried."

Shield jumps back through the first portal.

"Hey, this portal is still open…" Ari comments.

"Well, we better do something about it."

"Wanna explore it?"

"Nope." He lifts the statue to cover the portal. "Nothing to see here folks."

"Oh, so that's who was lifting the statue…" Ari comments.

Shield comes through a portal again. "Oh hey, sorry, I forgot about this." Shield closes the portal behind the statue. "Bye!" He closes his portal and disappears.

Ari scratches her head. "What was that all about?"

"I have no clue."

 **CHAPTER 14**

 _So I must deal with him myself. I must have a faceoff with him and destroy him MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! On second thought, he is kind of hot, so it'd be more like a… FACE-ON!_ She slips into a comfortable dream.

" _Zoro, I challenge you to a face-on!"_

" _A face on? I'm so ripped! You're on!"_

" _No you're on!"_ Ari grabs his face! "On my face!" She smooches him deeply. He feels the sensory input run from his lip to his tongue to his cheek bone all the way up to his mammary glands.

"I strike back!" [the Swordsman Strikes Back] He slaps her back and engages in a full-on frontal counter strike. His tongue invades her cave-like mouth and scrapes the stalactites off the ceiling. "Hmmm! Tasty!"

"I had strawberry shortcake for my pre-breakfast."

"Then let's have some blueberry muffins for breakfast!"

Ari leans off to the side while keeping his mouth on hers and pulls out a tray of muffins from under her bed.

"Ah! The secret oven-under-the-bed trick! Brilliant!"

"This is my ultimate move!" Ari disengages from the kiss hold and stuffs a muffin in her mouth, and grabs one and sticks on in Zoro's mouth. "Yum-ha!"

"This is too much for me! I am thrilled!"

Zoro and Ari chew and chew and then reengage. "Time to end this!" Ari reengages in the kiss and force swallows her muffin, while plunging her tongue into Zoro's muffin, stealing half of it, and forcing the rest down into Zoro's stomach.

 **CHAPTER 15**

Author's Note: a portion of this deleted scene was originally going to be in the story and may still be revealed in a sequel, but some of it is the bullshit mentioned previously.

Flutter's ears are numbed and the voices above her are eclipsed by her own drowsiness. She feels as if she is miles away from those unfamiliar voices. Night or day, she has no clue which it is at the moment. There's a faint iron stench to the air surrounding her. She drifts in and out of consciousness, unaware of the concept of time.

 _Where…_

 _Am…_

 _I… ?_

 _What…_

 _Happened… to me… ?_

 _Emi… Chloe…_

 _Pheonix…_

 _you guys playing… hide and seek on me again?_

 _I'll… find you…_

 _HA! I got you!_

 _Wait… that's just another plank of wood._

 _Guys… this isn't_

 _funny anymore… !_

No matter how hard Flutter looks inside her dream, all she can find is consuming darkness. Desperately, she runs along the ship that is now blown to splinters and scouts the area for her friends. She spots Emi floating on a small boat, hiding behind a splintered barrel.

 _I got you this time, Emi!_

She whips her head around to surprise Emi, but Emi looks over at her with a dead expression in her eyes.

(p.s. please sing as you read the below thoughts)

 _How could this happen to me…_

 _I made a mistake…_

 _now it's too late… how could this happen to me…?_

"Brainnsss…" Emi climbs to her feet clumsily and shuffles toward her.

"The Zombies want my brains, but I got watermeloan to keep me sane!" Ari declares and puts her watermelon helmet on. She climbs into her watermelon boat and says, "Their ship was blown to smithereens, but I got watermeloan to serve my means." She then paddles away into the sunset with her trusty watermeloan at her side and on her head.

 **CHAPTER 15**

Zoro gets to the top of the stairs, but there's nothing there. Literally nothing!

"Wait, what?" The whole scene goes blank. "Where am I?"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a portal opens and a blue unicorn comes out. "Hello, Zoro!"

Who the hell are you?"

"Oh, I'm just a passerby. Just here to tell you why things went blank."

"Yeah, and why is that?"

"Because Pheonixdino, the author of this fanfic-"

"Wait, fanfic?!"

"Nevermind that…" Shield blows him off. "Just don't worry, she'll finish it. She's already got this chapter planned out."

"Planned out? You mean I'm not making decisions on my own?"

The whiteness fades.

"Uh oh," says Shield. "There's a storm outside… a bit of an interruption. I have to go now."

"Wait, at least tell me where I am!"

"No time for that, but don't worry, as soon as she starts again, you'll be right back here where she left off, without any memory of ever being here."

"What. Then what are you doing here?"

"Nothing. Bye." Shield opens a portal and jumps out. Zoro tries to follows him, but doesn't reach him in time.

"Crap. Now what am I supposed to do?" Zoro sits down.

* * *

Again, don't take the above seriously. It's all crap. Thank you!


	18. Part 2: Chapter 17

Here's the first chapter for part 2! Enjoy!

* * *

CHAPTER 17

Heavenly Retribution? Sunset vs. Sunrise!

Ari and Zoro part ways at the fork between the west and east wing, and Ari travels the length of the hall, on her way to her room. She finds herself deep in thought as she walks. She can't help but feel like she's forgetting something.

Ari continues to ponder what she's missing when she comes to a stop in the middle of her room. Her train of thought is cut off when a voice at her doorway startles her, "So do you think you'll be coming back to the cottage?"

Ari instantly recognizes the voice as Marguerite's and she turns to say, "You know what? I'll think I'll stay here a while longer."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she replies. "Besides, it has a really nice gym and all that."

"Yeah, it's the gym that you find nice. Uhuh, yeah, just keep telling yourself that, Ari. Well, anyway, I'm gonna get back to the cottage, but we're good right?"

"Yeah, we're good." Ari crosses the expanse of her room and hugs her friend.

"Well, cya later then!" Marguerite turns to leave, but Ari catches her with a suspicious look in her eye.

"Wait… why were you here in the first place? Sanji huh? Not my type, but ok I guess you're both blondes to consider love in the first place."

"What's up with this complex you have with blondes?!" Marguerite karate chops her on the head. "And no, Sanji just wanted my pancake recipe, that's all."

"Uhuh, yeah, keep telling yourself that, Marguerite." Ari chuckles. _Man, she reminds me of Pheo sometimes._

"I can't believe this. Byee!" Marguerite tromps out of the room and Ari continues on with her insistent laughter.

"WE'RE STILL GOOD RIGHT?" Ari calls out the door to her.

"YEAH, WE'RE GOOD," Marguerite shouts back.

XXX

"Ari….." a voice calls. "She's out to get you! You have to run! Run! RUN ALREADY!"

And so Ari runs down the halls and out her bedroom door, trying her best to get away from whoever it is that's chasing her. The heels click along the halls and each click-clack spells a letter of danger. The palace around her is crackling from the fire that roars down from the heavens in angry retribution. The flames lick up the walls, traveling at an alarming rate to the ceiling above her. Suddenly, the ceiling gives and collapses, barely missing her. She manages to maneuver around the jumble of beams, but the smoke is unavoidable. It comes up from the floorboards in a rage and clouds her lungs; stings at her eyes. Soon, the tears welling up in her eyes obstruct her vision completely and she falls down to the burning ground. The floorboards bend in protest and snap under her weight and she falls down into the servants' quarters. A single maid comes before her with a whip in hand. The maid's hair provides a stark contrast to the red flames surrounding them, but before Ari can look closer at her features, she is somewhere else entirely.

She is now standing in the doorway of a shed. The sky is streaked with a red that drips back down to the horizon, where the sun is currently setting at a much faster pace than usual. The wind blows harshly against her skin and whips her hair into her face. Ari can barely make out a shadowy figure at the edge of the beach through the chunks of hair obstructing her vision. Ari peels some of her hair out of her face and is shocked to find that half of it is burned off. Pushing the spiraling fear out of the way, she pulls what's left of her hair into a tight ponytail. She can now see that the figure appears to be a woman and that there's a small rowboat docked on the beach behind her. The woman is waving her arms and pointing at the boat.

 _She's motioning towards the boat… does she want me to get in? I don't know her… but… she looks somewhat famil_ \- cannon fire is heard and that's all the motivation the former pirate captain needs to get moving. The shadow woman picks up the pace and waves her arms frantically, motioning for Ari to move faster. Another explosion is heard, except this time it's alarmingly close to the cliffside behind her. _Just five more steps… four more steps… three more steps… two more steps… one more-_ KABOOOOOMCRRACKKK! The pomegranate trees on the cliffside behind her crack and bend at their roots from the explosion, causing them to tumble down the cliffside and onto the beach. One of the trees traps Ari's foot just as she's a feather's distance from the boat. The fire from the tree flares its way up from her feet to her body. The fire gnaws its way through her clothes and then greedily latches onto her skin. She cries out in agony and futily reaches for the boat's edge. The fire catches onto her hair and she hisses through her teeth. She continues to reach for any scrap of hope left, even if it's the edge of a little row boat. _Just… a little… farther…_ She vaguely feels the tree roll off of whatever's left of her foot and tries one last time to reach for the boat.

Finally, her hand catches onto it, and all at once, her body is whole again. The blood-red evening sky is now replaced with a lazy sunrise and there is no longer a forest on fire or explosions booming in the air. Her hair, which had been previously burned to ash was as rich and shiny as she remembered it being. Her foot, which was practically burned off completely, was fully functional without a burn in sight. _Huh?_ She looks around her and finds that she is out at sea with the shadow woman. The woman looks over at her and seems to be smiling. She points out to the sunlit horizon, as if indicating that that's where Ari should go. Ari looks behind them to the west and all she sees for miles is the vast ocean. So monumental in size that she can hardly comprehend its worth or meaning.


	19. Part 2: Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

Shadows emerge! Drowning in Grief!

Ari opens her eyes and is enveloped in darkness. She peeks over from her spot on the floor and spots a few tiny stars sparkling in the night. Other than their faint light, her room is coated in shadows. Suddenly, the wind picks up and howls through the window, causing a paper from her nightstand to flare up and glide over to rest on her neck. She sits up and secures the worn paper in her hand. She identifies it as her receipt to the Stony Brook Sword Shop and casts it aside to rest on the floor. She massages her neck and head and peers skeptically around the room. She can't help but to quiver at the shadows that seem to cling and cluster around the corners. It's as if they are watching her in silent cognition. They fix her with an intent stare, trying to convey their insight. A chill runs down her spine and the hairs on her neck rise. Suddenly, the chill running through her is met by the stark contrast of a warm puff of breath tickling the back of her neck. She whips her head around and swears that she sees a darker, more prominent shadow retreat back into darkness.

 _Huh… that's weird… I could've sworn I saw something… and when did I fall asleep anyway?_ Ari gets off the floor and glances over to the clock on her bedstand. She shakes her head and then looks at it more carefully to make sure that she read it right the first time. _Seriously?! It's three in the morning?! Man, I hate getting off of my sleep schedule! Well, might as well try to go back to sleep._ She climbs into bed and pulls the covers over her shoulders. She snuggles further into the warm cocoon and awaits a visit from rest, despite her newfound paranoia. She finally feels her eyes drifting down to her cheeks, but as soon as they shut, the image of the shadow woman from her dream is burned once again into her memory and she flings open her eyes. The blankets over her suddenly feel more constricting than welcoming. She shrugs them down her body in a hustle, causing them to gather around her ankles like tight confines around a prisoner. All at once, the entirety of Ari's nightmare comes back to her and she recalls when her feet were even more painfully constricted. She manages to untangle herself from the blankets and hugs a pillow to her chest as a temporary console. She glances this way and that around her room, checking it over and over to make sure that she is, indeed, alone. _The shadow I swear I saw moving earlier before I remembered my nightmare… could it just be a figment of my imagination? I must be going nuts!_

She sits there a while longer with the pillow crushed against her chest until she decides to get out of bed and head to the kitchen for some comfort fruit.

 **XXX**

 _It's too bad that there weren't any pomegranates,_ she thinks to herself as she shuts the palace doors behind her. The chilly night air welcomes her as she wraps her poncho around her more snugly. She steps down the stairs and onto the cool grass as she bites into an apple. The sweet juicy foam gathers in her mouth as she chews. _Juicy._ She strolls around the palace yard and eventually comes across a set of gates, not unlike the front, at the very back of the palace. These doors, however, had not been knocked down by the reckless pirate captain. Holding the apple in one hand, she creaks one of the gates open using her free hand. There's a tidy, dirt path leading out to a field next to a swamp. She looks back at the palace and debates for a second, before stepping outside the gates and walking along the path. The dirt goes on for a while, before turning into a wooden bridge that is built over the swamp. There are groves of thick trees lining the bridge, blocking out the moonlight. She strolls on the bridge and carefully watches her step as she navigates. Suddenly, the wood gives as she sets down her left foot, causing the faulty plank to fall into the water below. Luckily, she regains balance and is able to right herself back on the bridge without falling in.

She walks a little farther, being more careful this time, and the live trees clear, leaving room for the moonlight to shine through. The trees in the swamp are leafless, their bare branches shamelessly flaunting their visit from death. When she comes to what she estimates to be the center of the bridge, she sits. With the sky completely unfolded before her, the stars can be seen much more clearly. The moon hangs high in the sky, its bright light barely resembling a full moon. _Full moons… it brings back memories alright._ She shudders at the memory of when she was forced to end her musical career and start anew as a pirate. Pushing the unpleasant memory from her mind, she lays down on the bridge and pulls her poncho back down to her knees as she fights to reminisce about happier times…

It was a clear night, the kind of night that's perfect for sailing. The moon was full and blessed the crew onboard the Grey Symphony with its compelling light. At the same time, the night casted eerie shadows on the face of the figurehead. Pheonix laid in the middle of the deck, with her hands resting behind her head. She closed her eyes and basked in the familiar, breathtaking glow. The captain emerged from her office and came down onto the deck to join her first mate. The air felt like the very definition of peace, smelled of the sea, and carried with it a sailor's home. It was ever-changing and never the same. Flutter often found Pheonix laying out here at night, especially when the moon was at it's fullest.

"It's too bad I can't get any closer to it," Pheonix sighed in both contentment and disappointment.

"Closer to what?" Flutter inquired.

"That." Pheonix stretched out an arm and pointed up to the moon.

"Why not just go up in the crow's nest?"

She shook her head and said, "No, that's not the same." The captain continued pondering what it was her crewmate meant, when she spoke up again, "Back before I was a pirate, the moon would light up my room at night. So I would sneak out, past the rubbage and then into the forest to get a better look. One night, I found an old apple tree standing tall and strong. I decided to climb up to the tallest branch. And so I would sit up there, basking in the moon's glow for hours.

"It became a tradition of sorts. Every night, I would sneak out and look at the moon while I snacked on apples. Eventually, I left my house and made that tree my home instead. Sometimes, I wish I could go back and look at the moon from that height once more."

"You could always visit home. What village are you from?"

Pheonix shook her head again. "That tree was burned down a long time ago."

"I see," Flutter replied, unsure of what else to say. "What about your village?"

Pheonix's face turned still as stone, her lips formed into a grim line as she asserted, "Night, Captain."

And before Flutter could open her mouth to say more, Pheonix disappeared into the bunk room to join the rest of the crew in their slumber.

 **XXX**

 _It makes me wonder if Pheo is the one that set that tree on fire,_ Ari chuckles to herself, before turning grim once again. _Though I suppose I'll never know._ All of a sudden, Ari doubles over from an unexpected sob. The grief and the guilt seize her body all at once. _I forgot how much full moons affected me since I met Pheo. I should get back to the palace… I should get back… I-I can't do this. Not right now. Not r-r-ight n-n-ow._ Ari shakily gets on her feet, and wobbles along the bridge, tears clouding her vision and grief clouding her judgement.

The live trees once again block out the moonlight and she stumbles through the dark, struggling to balance herself against her sobs. Her right foot catches on a hole in the bridge, causing her to lose her balance and tumble into the swamp below.

The murky water slurps her body underneath its surface in greed. The water instantly counteracts her devil fruit powers, paralyzing her. The liquid fills her ears, and the grime in the water stings her eyes as she opens them. Slowly, she sinks down farther and farther until she can no longer see even a trace of the bridge above. All of a sudden, she is taken back to when she was tossed into the sea after her crew died. A series of flashbacks begin, all of which include the horror and shock on her subordinates' faces. Another sob racks her body, but when she breathes back in for air, her lungs are only met with water. She continues sinking down to the swamp floor, gradually choking on the mass of liquid around her. She feels a sharp sting at the back of her head, and she gives every attempt to move, to swim back up to the surface, but she is a prisoner inside her own body. A prisoner to her sight fogging up, a prisoner to her eyes closing, and a prisoner to the death that awaits her after the blackout.


	20. Part 2: Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

Ari is Sick? The Tale of Lost Bracelets and Memories!

 _The first thing that stands out is the cold. I can no longer wiggle my toes or feel my body, perhaps because I don't have one anymore. A numb chill. You know it's there, you know it's cold, but you don't_ feel _it. And as soon as you're in it, you're_ in _it. No return. No hope. But sometimes, I feel,_ really _feel_. _A spark of hope, like a candle. And as soon as you believe that it may stay lit, it's snuffed out again. Then suddenly, as if the ice had been set aflame I feel warmth. Familiar warmth. Like a crackling fire's embrace. I look up to see the face of someone I failed. But she's different. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something is different. Her brow is furrowed, she's worried. Her worry soon turns to panic. I'm pulled back down, down to a room somewhere. All at once, the warmth is gone. The comforting fireside is now replaced with a burning, stinging sensation in my chest. My chest. I have a chest? What-_

Ari's eyes fly open, and she hurls forward, coughing up air. She feels a chill run across her skin. _I can feel the cold?_ Right after she thinks it, she has no idea why the thought even occurred to her. _Of course I can feel the cold, dumb me._

She takes a look around her and finds that she's in a metal-framed bed with light-blue blankets. The bed rests opposite of the door, which has been left ajar. The room around her is warmed by a blazing fireplace. A small oil lamp sits on the desk past the nightstand beside her, where one of the Straw Hats searches through his books frantically. She sits to maneuver out of her bed, when a sharp pang rings through her head. She instinctively reaches to touch it, but instead of her head, her palm meets soft gauze.

The pirate at the desk instantly zips to her side. "You need rest," he orders, "you're just getting out of hypothermia; it's a miracle that you're still alive. Most patients that have undergone the trauma that you did would've been dead before they got here."

Ari wasn't sure what the racoon-dog was talking about, but his voice was annoying her. She didn't have time for bed rest. She had something… something important… _What was it that I really needed to do again? I can't remember…_ "I… I nee… ta do somethin impotant." Ari resisted the urge to get back under the covers and attempted to push the little creature aside, but he was stronger than he looked. Either that or she really _was_ weakened by some illness. Just the act of using her muscles alone made her feel dizzy. She didn't even have the energy to push the pirate aside as he tucked her back under the blankets.

"Rest," he says again, "you'll feel better in the morning."

And at that, Ari's eyes flutter shut and she falls into a deep sleep once again.

XXX

When Ari wakes, she keeps her eyes shut for a while longer as she attempts to remember her dream the night before. To her disappointment, she only remembers it in fragments: heels pounding on a bridge, the smell of pumpkin bread, and a racoon-dog that could talk. She laughs to herself, but the sound doesn't come out as expected. Instead of a laugh, it sounds more like a half-croak, half-wheeze. This sends her into a coughing fit, and she doubles over. Opening her eyes, she notices a glass of water sitting on the nightstand beside her, and hurriedly takes a few gulps. She sighs with relief as her cough subsides. She takes another sip just in case, and places the glass back down on the nightstand when she senses another presence at her bedside. She freezes in place before slowly peeking down to see who it is.

"You're awake!" a racoon-dog cheers.

Her eyes open wide and she accidentally sprays her last sip of water on his face as she erupts into another round of laughter. "The… racoon-dog… that was REAL?!" The scratchiness in her voice goes unnoticed due to her own amusement.

"I'M A REINDEER! REIN. DEER!" he rebuts, but this only makes her laugh more, until tears form at the corners of her eyes. "AND IS THAT ANYWAY TO TREAT YOUR DOCTOR?!"

" _You're_ the one supposed to be _treating_ me!" She bubbles up again, but soon regrets it as she coughs up more air and heaves, "Water… water…" She stretches out to the nightstand and reaches for her glass, but in her haste, it topples over the side and spills onto the floor. "Water…" she whines.

"Here," the ra-reindeer hands her another glass.

She greedily gulps it down and sighs, "Better." She leans back against her pillows.

"This will help with your cough." He hands her a small tablet.

She shrugs and pops the tablet in her mouth, washing it down with another sip of water. Her eyes pass a glance at the door, which has been left ajar like it was last night. A brief flash of green goes past the door. _Last night…_ "I'm sorry, what's your name?" she asks, fighting down a chuckle as she makes eye-contact.

"Chopper!" he cheers. "You were brought in here late last night."

"Last night," Ari mumbles. Now that she's calmed down, she realizes that she has a headache. "My head hurts," she notes as she touches the bandage there.

"You sustained a head injury. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Umm… I remember I took a walk somewhere last night, but after that it's in bits and pieces."

"Ok, don't worry, you're only experiencing a little short-term amnesia. It should subside over the next couple of days, but I'd like to keep you on bed-rest to monitor your condition."

Ari swings her legs over the side of the bed and stands up. There's a slight twinge in her foot as she does so, but she ignores it.

"I said bed-rest!"

"And _I_ say I'll be fine," Ari argues back. She feels a little dizzy upon standing, but brushes it off. _There was something I had to do… what was it?!_ She takes the robe that is draped on the end of her bed, ties it securely around her waist, and then drinks the last of her water before heading on her way.

"Well, at least make sure to drink plenty of fluids, and don't overdo it," he orders. "You're still recovering, your body needs time to heal itself properly."

She waves a hand over her shoulder as a response.

After heading up the stairs to get to the second floor, she walks down the halls to her room. She shuts her door, and puts herself to work changing out of the robe and hospital nightie. She pulls on a flowy white dress in its place, and a turquoise necklace. She accessorizes with some other bracelets to match and- _bracelets. BRACELETS!_ She searches frantically along her right arm, but her spiked bracelet is missing! She looks all over her floor, thinking that it may have fallen off there, but she only finds her Stony Brooke Sword Shop receipt. She tosses the receipt back on the floor. _Chopper. He may have taken it off along with my wet clothes._ Ari's own thoughts confuse her, since she has no recollection of getting wet, but somehow, she just _knows._

She rushes back down to the west wing of the basement, where the medical rooms are, and heads down to the one she believes was hers. She bursts through the door, only to find another person in the bed, and Chopper nowhere to be found. _This room smells spicier than I remember it being… maybe it's not mine after all._ Ari's thoughts are interrupted when the girl in the bed springs up from her sleep, panic written across her face. _Her face…_

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I'm just looking for Chopper. It's really important, have you seen him?"

The girl attempts to speak up, but a harsh rasp is the only noise that comes out. So, she opts to just shake her head instead.

Ari rushes and checks the other medical rooms, more discreetly this time, but with no luck. She groans in frustration. _The bridge… I should check there._ Again, she has no idea where this thought comes from, but it's there. Ari bounds up the stairs for the second time today and races through the front door, passing someone as she goes. She tours to the back gates, which have conveniently been left open, and continues onto the dirt trail leading to the bridge. She slows down as she gets farther along the path and closer to the bridge. Bit by bit, her surroundings evoke bright flashes of her memory to return: dark boots, green, something familiar that she can't quite make out.

As she steps onto the bridge, she stops looking at the scenery around her, and more at the wooden planks themselves, partly out of care, and partly to aid in her search. She stops as soon as she reaches about where the middle is, deeming that there's no point in searching any farther than that. She doesn't know how she reaches this conclusion, but she figures that it's either her instinct, or just her memory slowly coming back. She leans over the edge of the bridge, taking a peek into the waters below. _Not much point in that I guess. The swamp is pretty deep._ She shudders. As she makes her way back from the middle of the bridge, she passes a faulty plank that she failed to notice on her way to the center. _I've been here. That's it! This is where I was last night. This plank wasn't faulty before. And it looks familiar._ Ari moves closer to where the part of the plank caves into the water. But all she sees are splinters from where the plank snapped. An image flashes across her mind. She sees her own foot falling onto the broken wood. And just as quickly as it came, it disappears. An idea comes to mind, and she sits on the bridge, making sure to be a safe distance away from the rotting wood of the plank. She lifts up her right foot to inspect it. Sure enough, there's bruising there as well as tiny scrape marks. _That settles it, then. I definitely broke this plank._

She feels so victorious that she's managed to regain some of her memory back already, that she forgets the original goal of her coming to the bridge. "The bracelet! That's right, I have to find it!" she exclaims as she smacks her fist in her palm. For at least another hour, she continues to look along the bridge, sometimes even wandering off farther than the middle. In fact, she wanders so far that she comes upon where the crocodiles like to nest, which is near the end of the bridge. She finally gives up for the day, and trudges back along the bridge to where she came. She picks up the pace towards the end when she sees a crocodile staring at her. Suddenly a thought comes back to mind, but she brushes it off. Finally, she comes back to the palace and peeks around in the back courtyard, but the spiked bracelet is nowhere to be found.


	21. Part 2: Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

The Expedition to Return Lost Memories! Pomegranate Gift From Zoro!

After searching tirelessly for her bracelet, she throws in the towel for a much more relaxing one. She trudges back up to her room, throws off her dress, and hops into the bath to relax. Or supposedly relax, at least. Her mind is still wandering, still wondering where her bracelet could be, what she has yet to remember, and what she is forgetting. She relaxes her back against the tubside and lets her body dip further under the water until only her face is above it. Suddenly, another flashback: she was choking, gasping, sobbing for air. Sinking further and further, with no possible way of escape. Shocked, she instantly jumps out of the bath, and onto the plush rug beside it. With shaky hands, she reaches for a towel that is neatly folded on the shelf above the water, careful not to slip and fall. She wraps the towel around herself and sinks down to a sitting position against the bathroom door, as far from the tub as possible, with her knees pulled up against her chest. _I… drowned… I…_ died.

And with that thought, a whole other flood of memories dowse her brain. _I saw a face after I died, I saw someone I knew… now who was it?!_ She keeps prying and torturing her brain for answers, but the brain's a hard thing to persuade. And she most certainly doesn't have Conqueror's Haki either, so there's no way she could use that against her current enemy: her amnesia. With a disappointed sigh, she quickly plucks the plug from the tub, dries herself off and wraps her towel around her body, tucking in a corner to secure it. She leaves her damp hair out in the open _No use in wasting another towel on my hair_. She slips into some cozy slippers and pads downstairs, making her way to the kitchen.

 _I'm so hungry… when was the last time I ate anyway?_ It's then that she remembers something: _I was eating an apple after I had a nightmare last night. That's when I walked outside._

When she finally arrives at the kitchen, she is happy to see that it is vacant. _The inner introvert in me applauds!_ she amuses herself. She opens the fridge, sees nothing of particular interest so she then moves onto the cupboards, but again, nothing of particular interest. Then she opens the fridge. _Wait, there's still the same things in here that there was the last time I checked two minutes ago! Dumb me!_ She's about to close the fridge again, when she notices something she _didn't_ notice before. A smile alights on her face, as she sees the same bag of pomegranates that Zoro cut down for her in the second-to-bottom drawer. Because they couldn't all fit, some of them were emptied out of the bag and put into the bottom drawer. _Marguerite must have left these._ Ari smiles.

She pulls open the drawer and reaches into the bag to grab one, ignoring the string that is tied to one of the straps. Ari takes a knife out of the silverware drawer and expertly cuts it open, delving into the sweet fruit. She almost goes back up to her room to eat, but instead opts to sit at the wooden table in the kitchen instead while she enjoys her snack. She chews on the fruit and studies the exquisite kitchen around her. _Mom would love to cook in here._ She feels a pang of homesickness and suddenly isn't in the mood for pomegranates anymore. _What sounds good right now is one of mom's boxed lunches._ She notices that she still has a couple more slices left of her snack.

 _I'll just wrap them up and put them in the fridge for later._ She searches through the cabinets again to find some plastic wrap, baggies, or anything of the like. She finds nothing in the top cabinets so she moves her search to the cabinets and drawers under the countertops. There's still one last cabinet under an industrialize-size sink for her to search in. At first glance, there's nothing more than a small trash can right up front. She doesn't pay it much notice, but she looks a little closer and finds that there are tiny boxes behind it. She carefully pulls the trash can out, and discovers that the little boxes have little storage baggies in them! _Victory!_ She bags up the pomegranate slices, deposits them in the fridge and then heads back over to the cabinet to clean up her mess. She places the boxes back where they were, and she reaches back to grab the trash can, and is about to set it back in the cabinet where it belongs when her towel comes loose, and she is forced to let go of the trash can in order to secure it. The trash can falls out of the cabinet and tips over, junk of all calibers and sorts tumbling out with it.

 _Give me a break…_ she sighs. _Better clean this up._ She secures her towel more firmly this time, and goes to work picking up the pieces of trash, when she notices a piece that is relatively out of place in comparison to the rest of the haul. She picks it out of the jumble with her fingertips, and suppresses a gag as she inspects it. It is only a crumpled-up piece of paper with a string taped to it, but the smell from the other junk in the trash had permeated it. She unfolds the paper out of curiosity, and finds that there are _words_ written on it.

 _Feel Better or whatever. -Z_

Her face flushes as she reads that last letter. _Z… that must stand for Zoro._ She looks at the string taped to the paper more closely, then she moves to open the fridge, carrying the note with her. _This is the same string that is tied to my bag. So it wasn't Marguerite who left these here after all…_ Ari smiles once more, until an expression of confusion settles upon her face. _But why did he throw the note away I wonder…_ _So that flash of green that I saw going past my door this morning after I woke up… that must have been him._ Ari starts thinking more and more. _Black boots… a flash of green… something I can't quite make out… that sounds like Zoro alright._ Ari laughs to herself. _So… if I was drowning because of my devil fruit powers… then someone must have rescued me from the swamp, right? Was Zoro my rescuer?_

 **XXX**

After cleaning up the mess, Ari headed back up to her room with a newly planted smile on her face.

She lies in her bed, still in her towel, with her thoughts completely jumbled. _Something important. Amnesia. Water. Zoro. Important. Important. Zoro? Swords. Pomegranates. Apples. Juicy. Something important. Amnesia sucks. Noise. Drowning. Something very important to tell Zoro. Noise again. Knock. Zoro? Noise… Oh my goodness there's a noise at my door! Someone's knocking on my door!_

Ari flies out of her bed, towel and all, and quickly swings open her door, only to find that it wasn't her door that was being knocked on. Though it _is_ Zoro that is knocking. Except he's knocking on the one next to hers: Robin's. He looks over at her quizzically. But he looks strange. His face seems… redder. Then the realization dawns on her: she's still only in a towel. Her face lights up bright red and she quickly slams her door shut to avoid any further embarrassment. She rests against the door and gradually slides down to a sitting position, gathering herself up. _So embarrassing._


	22. Part 2: Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Zoro's perspective of a crazy night! A missing page from the logbook of villagers?

After Zoro and Ari part ways at the fork between the east and west wing, Zoro attempts to find his room. He turns at the end of the hall, thinking that this has to be his room, but instead finds himself back in the palace gym. _I ended up here again?!_ He thinks to himself. He'd landed in the gym once before whilst trying to find his room. _I'm in here so much, might as well_ be _my room._ Zoro shrugs to himself and picks up the weights and the statue of the Empress as he had before and begins his workout. After he finishes that, he cools down with some laps in the pool, dries off, and gets dressed.

As he leaves the gym, he notices a door directly across from it. The door has the number one embossed with gold on it. _Number one… they got that right._ He smirks.

He enters his room and strips back down, falling asleep with ease as soon as his face hits the pillow.

XXX

Zoro stretches out luxuriously and yawns as he wakes up. It's still fairly early, so the sun hasn't reached the eastern horizon yet. He gets out of bed, pulls on his green coat and straps on his swords as he steps out of his room. He tours the halls, looking for the kitchen, when he passes by some maids that are chit-chatting.

"That pink-haired lady has been staying here a long time," a bodyguard-built girl says.

"It's hard having another person to clean up after. Especially since the Empress already has the entirety of the Straw Hats staying here too!" Marin whines.

"Her floor is always a mess, isn't it?" Tori laughs to herself.

The other maids look over at Tori strangely and Marin speaks up again, "I'd hardly consider one small receipt on her floor a 'mess'."

Tori looks utterly dumbfounded as she stutters, "Y-yeah, I mean that's still messy." Her cheeks turn pink.

"I _did_ see that she left a t-shirt and some shorts on her floor one day," another maid says.

"But anyway, did you hear that she's in the hospital wing?" Marin adds.

"Oh no, I didn't hear that," Tori frets. "And what are you doing issuing out gossip anyway? You should get to work!" She shakes her head. "All of you, come on now! Back to work, back to work!" Tori shoos the group of maids until they all break away to go back to their work.

"Something happened to Ari?" Zoro wonders to himself. He shrugs. "Anyway, I better go get some food before Luffy eats it all." Zoro goes down some stairs and comes across a set of double doors. _Looks like I'm here. First try too._ He smirks, satisfied with his improving directional skills, but instead of seeing a wooden table and stone floors, he's greeted with trees and a stone walk leading out of the palace down to the village. He frowns. _Damn, how'd I end up here?!_

He hears someone coming from around the corner of the palace, and Zoro puts a hand to the hilt of one of his swords, ready to draw. The person in question happens to be Sanji returning with a compost bin that had been freshly emptied. Zoro lets his hand come to rest at his side, though his irritation remains. "Get lost going to the kitchen again?" Sanji smirks.

"No," Zoro spits. "I'm off to train. See ya." Zoro passes the cook without another word. He walks through the village and takes the time to appreciate the quiet. This stillness is a quality that he's rarely seen, especially since he joined up with Luffy many years ago. He finally comes to where the village and the forest meet, and heads on into the trees. He practices a few general forms, does some 'light' muscle exercises and trains until the sun peeks up from the east. He then goes on his way back to the palace, when he stumbles across Marguerite and Ari's cottage once again. He involuntarily shivers at the memory of having to hide from the women of the village. _I can't believe I posed as a plant. A_ plant _for Christ's sake._ He moves quickly, trying to get away from the cottage as soon as possible, when he suddenly arrives at the very doorstep he's avoiding. _Give me a break._ He turns around to attempt leaving the cottage once more, when the door opens.

A sleepy Marguerite greets him from the other side, "Zoro," she says with surprise, "how can I help you?"

"I, uh…" Zoro says nervously, unsure of how to say 'I just kinda ended up here without cognizantly doing so' without sounding crazy. He looks past her shoulder and notices a bag of pomegranates on the kitchen floor. He continues speaking whilst following his current train of thought, "I came by to pick up those. For Ari, I mean. I mean to give to-"

"Oh, is that all?" Marguerite stretches out and yawns. "Alright then," she says as she turns and walks into the kitchen. She hefts the load of pomegranates up, and hands it over to Zoro. "Here ya go! Be sure to tell Ari I said hi." She smiles once more.

"Uh, yeah, I'll do that."

Marguerite closes the door and Zoro heads down the walk back to the main path, carrying the load of pomegranates all the while.

He arrives back at the palace, and to his luck, lands in the kitchen. However, his luck ends there; the kitchen is bustling with maids, Sanji, and of course the Straw Hat captain swiping whatever food he can.

Zoro sighs irritably and makes his way towards the fridge. A rubber arm stretches past his face over to the counter, where Sanji is currently chopping some apples. Luffy manages to grab one of the slices, but at the cost of getting nicked with the knife's blade. "Ouch, Sanji! What'd ya do that for?!"

"Luffy, keep your hands off! I'm in the middle of cutting here!" Sanji aims the blade at Luffy.

"But, Sanjiii, I can't wait for breakfast. I want food now!"

"Well, too bad, you'll have to wait. It'll be done in a half hour."

Luffy and Sanji continue bickering while Zoro continues on his way to put the pomegranates in the fridge. Zoro just starts emptying out some of the pomegranates into the bottom drawer since all of them won't fit in the other one, when Sanji cuts in, "Oh, good, finally made use of yourself. Would ya hand me some of those pomegra-"

"No," Zoro replies, "these aren't for you."

Sanji raises a curly brow at his response. "So who _are_ they for?"

Zoro tenses. "None of your damn business. Don't touch them." Zoro unties his bandanna and rips a sliver of it off to act as a string. He ties one end of the string onto the bag handle and tapes the other end on a quickly scrawled note. _There. That should do it._ He grins to himself. He's on his way out the door, when Sanji opens the fridge and chuckles. Zoro freezes in place, wondering if it's the note that his crewmate is amused with.

"How sweet, mosshead here has a crush."

Zoro's face ignites a bright red. In an attempt to cover his embarrassment, he keeps walking and says, "Yeah, yeah whatever."

As Zoro leaves out the door, he overhears Luffy ask, "Hey, Sanji, what's a crush? Zoro's gonna crush somebody?"

"No, you moron!"

As Zoro saunters along, with no particular destination in mind, his mind wanders back and thinks about what that stupid love cook said. He hurriedly shakes his head. _No. He's wrong. There's no way that-_ Zoro's train of thought is interrupted when he realizes where he's ended up: the medical wing, right by Ari's door. He initially peeks inside, but then sees that she's awake. He sighs with relief, but then catches himself. Ari looks over at her door, and out of fear of being seen, he hurriedly moves past her door and down the hall. He continues his train of thought, _There's no way that he's right._

He continues moving down the hall, up the stairs and, luckily enough, into the kitchen. Sanji and Luffy are nowhere to be found, though there are still some maids continuing their work. He stalks past them, opens the fridge, tears the note off the bag and quickly throws it in the trash. _See? No crush. Nothing._ He nods to himself.

XXX

The rest of the day drags on. Zoro's thoughts, try as he might, had a way of trailing back to a certain someone, that certain someone being Ari. He shakes his head for the millionth time today. _I have to focus on finding the Fluttering Swordswoman._ With that in mind, he tours the hallways of the upstairs until he happens upon Robin's room. He knocks a couple times and waits. No answer. He knocks again, but instead of Robin's door opening, the one next to it does: Ari's. Her door opens so fast, that a huge gust of wind blows past, causing her sweet scent to travel to Zoro's nose. He can't help but look over at the source of it and stare at the sight of her, seemingly fresh out of the bath. His eyes drink in the length of her body, starting from her face and going down to her toes. The only thing blocking his gaze from staring at _all_ of her skin is a plush white towel that covers her entire torso. He notes that it barely goes past her butt. To his surprise, he almost turns his head to see up the towel a bit further. But before he can study her anymore, Ari retreats back inside her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Zoro, I must admit I don't believe I've ever seen you blush before."

He starts at the sudden voice, but then realizes that it's Robin. "So do you have any more information about the Fluttering Swordswoman?"

Robin cocks her head curiously at him, but replies nonetheless, "I do. Come in."

Zoro closes the door behind him as Robin retrieves a book from her desk.

"I was going to share my findings with you as soon as I found them, but I thought that you may want an explanation for what I _did_ find," she explains.

"What do ya have?" He gestures at the book in her hands.

"This is that logbook of the island that I told you about before. There were two villagers that came to the island around the same time that the Fluttering Swordswoman died, right?"

He nods.

"I was reading in this further to see if it ever mentions the names of the villagers that came here and this is what I found." She opens the book, and shows it to Zoro.

"Almost the whole page is ripped out."

Robin nods. "I've read the entire logbook. This part right here," Robin gestures to the missing page, "is the only place where the new villagers' names would have been."

"So we need to find that page."

Robin sighs. "Someone ripped that page out. Someone who didn't want anyone to know those names. They likely disposed of it after ripping it out. Sadly, I don't think we'll be able to find it."

Zoro clenches his fist and furrows his brow.

"However, if we're able to determine _who_ ripped the page out, we may be able to find out those two names. After all, it may very well have been one of those new villagers who ripped it out."

"So how do we do that?"

"We need to find out who has access to the logbook. I'm guessing the Empress herself has access along with the Elder. And possibly anyone else who is in the palace often."

"Since the Elder wrote it, I seriously doubt she tore it out."

"Good point. The same is probably safe to say for the Empress too."

"You don't think…" Zoro ponders, "that the Fluttering Swordswoman could have done it, do you?"

Robin puts a finger to her mouth. "That is a possibility. A strong one, I'd say."

"So who else is in the palace a lot?"

There's a pause.

 _Wait… someone who is in the palace a lot… someone who is around every turn… wherever I look_ they're _always there… Maids._ "Maids."

Robin looks over at him.

"Maids," he repeats, "they're everywhere in the palace. They clean every _thing._ They would have access."

Robin's eyes light up. "The maids have access."

He nods.

"The only problem is that there are so many maids. It could have been any of them. And we can't just ask each of them if they did, because even if they _did_ tear it out, it's not likely that they'd admit to it. It's too bad that the page is likely disposed of by now."

"Well, lucky for us if that page _is_ still around," he grins, "I know where to look for it."


	23. Part 2: Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The memory of lost careers! Enter Pheonix the blonde girl!

The next day, Ari takes some time to unwrap the bandage around her head and inspect the wound. It's not completely healed, but there's a neatly formed scab, so Ari figures she can go without the ridiculous-looking bandage. She promptly throws it in the trash and carefully brushes her hair as to not scrape the newly-formed scab on her scalp.

Afterwards, Ari makes her way down to the dining room for lunch and takes a seat at the table. She's the first one there so she takes a moment to bask in the peaceful solitude. A peaceful, quiet solitude that is pleasantly interrupted when she hears music coming from the ballroom in the next room: piano music. In order to not be seen, she wanders to the back of the dining room and exits through a door that leads to a small servant's hall. The hallway is so small that only one person can pass through it at a time. It was designed that way on purpose so that maids stay in a single-line formation. This way, when they enter into a room they look orderly and professional. She cracks open another door in the hall, and viola! She's now looking in on a solo piano performance. She squints up at the stage, trying to determine who the pianist is, but the lights in the ballroom aren't on. Whoever is playing clearly doesn't want to be seen.

The melody plays in time with Ari's heart song. She taps a hand on her thigh, as in tune with the tempo as a metronome. _Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh, du-_ her tapping is disrupted when someone tries to slide past her, bumping into her from behind. She groans and turns around just as the person is directly behind her, bringing her face-to-face with her interruption.

She musters up her best glare, though it's rendered useless and unseen in the dark hallway.

"Uh-sorry. Didn't mean to bump into ya."

She starts at the sound of his voice and reaches back to steady herself on the door behind her, but since the door is open she loses her balance completely. Right before she hits the ground, a strong hand folds around the small of her back, steadying her. Their faces come close and their noses touch. _Crap! Now I'm even closer to him than I was before!_ Her thoughts go around in panicked circles, unsure of what to do. Here she is, yet again, just one inch from kissing a certain swordsman. Ari doesn't dare move, save for blinking.

Zoro doesn't dare move either. _I don't want to screw up… I've always been too busy training to worry myself about this stuff… Hell, I've never even kissed a women before, let alone anything else!_ He sighs. _I'm better off playing it safe for now._

He gradually comes up to a stand, bringing Ari to her feet with him. He means to remove his hand from the small of her back as soon as she's no longer in danger, but finds the task is much more difficult than he originally would have thought.

Finally, Ari backs up, forcing his hand to slide away from her and back to his side. _The pianist stopped playing…_ She sighs. She looks over her shoulder to attempt a glimpse at whoever was playing, but is unsuccessful yet again due to the poor lighting.

Zoro hears Ari's disappointment and he thinks that it's because they're no longer touching, but his curiosity is cleared and his own disappointment deepened when he sees her look for the musician that was playing just now. "Brooke," he pipes up, without thinking.

Ari glances back at him with her questioning gaze and for reasons unbeknownst to him, his stomach flutters.

"Brooke," he repeats. "Our musician."

"Oh, I see," she confirms. "Though I must admit, I've never heard him play Sonata number fourteen."

He shrugs. "He's old. Knows a lot of pieces I guess."

She nods, but is still haunted by the familiar tune of Beethoven's song. It is a tune she used to hear often, back when she was aboard her old ship, with her old crew. It appears as though the ghosts of her dead crewmates still manage to haunt her, even with these brick walls around her, and even with one of the strongest men in the world right next to her. It is then she recollects the conclusion that she came to last night: _Zoro rescued me from the swamp. Should I… say something? I should thank him, right?_

"Well, I, uh," he stutters, "I'm off to eat." He turns to leave down the hall as he originally intended, when a small hand catches him by his bicep. He pauses.

Ari's hand falls back down to her side. "Thank you," she says, "for saving me."

He smirks and leaves it at that.

After Zoro is long gone down the hall, it dawns on her that he might have mistaken her thanks as appreciation for saving her from falling just now, not for what it was. _Oh well, I said thank you. That's what counts._

After lunch comes to a close, Ari opts to tour back to the palace ballroom the same way as before. The room appears to be unoccupied, though there's no way for her to know for sure since it's so dark. She wanders through the darkness, blindly trying to find her way to the stage. She climbs up the stairs and accidentally bumps into the massive curtains on one side. A cloud of dust rains down from them, landing on her, unfortunately enough. She coughs and waves at the air, trying to clear it. _This room must not be used very frequently. Or_ cleaned _frequently for that matter._ She takes off her cardigan and uses it to cover her mouth to prevent her from inhaling any more dust.

She continues walking blindly on the stage, keeping to the walls to get an idea of how big the stage really is, when she accidentally flips on the lights. She puts a hand above her eyes to block out the brightness. In a little time, her eyes adjust and she is left with the breathtaking view. The lights only shine onto the stage, leaving the rest of the ballroom in darkness. She pads along to get a better look at her surroundings, when her foot accidentally catches on an object on the ground.

The silver object rolls along, making a light dinging noise, until it reaches centerstage and stops. Ari freezes, eyes wide. Her hands drops the cardigan to the floor. Her feet carry her on their own accord and she slowly makes her way to the object, one foot in front of the other. It shines right by the microphone. The hollow cylinder gleams at her, tempting her to touch it. Another step. The keys glimmer a piece of her past and she steps on towards centerstage. The lip plate—it calls her. She takes one more step. She pauses. She looks down. One small musical muse, sixteen tiny keys, a thing more tempting than sex and more satisfying than food. A musician's drug. Her fingers twitch as she impulsively reaches down and lifts it off the stage. The muscles in her hands instinctively ease the instrument home. She closes her eyes and takes a breath. Inhale, then exhale. She opens her eyes and welcomes the view that only a soloist can capture and claim as her own. As if moving on their own, her fingers breeze along the silver keys into their respective positions. Inhale, then exhale. And as if all caution had evaded her, she inhales one last time. Her lips pucker, and she exhales once more, breathing life into the flute before her. And alas, she creates a note.

A shock wave of sorts, judges fall, people fall, families fall. Her world, reborn and shattered. In the background, she hears someone scream, a ding as something hits the floor, and a much louder, more pronounced thud as something much heavier does. All other sound is drowned out when that voice continues screaming and sobbing desperately. It spirals up higher and higher until it reaches a whole other octave. The unpleasant sound rakes at her ears and threatens her eardrums. She turns to tell whoever it is to shut up and calm down, but then it hits her: that voice is her own.

Everything is dark. She isn't sure why, but then she realizes that her eyes are shut tight. She opens them and at first glance, all she notices is the shiny flute freshly fallen to the floor. Her long hair hangs in strands, shielding her face from the terrors that lie in the audience. Cautiously, she peeks through the veil and recalls how she fell to the floor and why the audience is no longer seated. The people in the audience are sprawled over the seats, their bodies tossed back like ragdolls.

Ari shakily comes to a stand, disregarding her flute for the time being. She wobbles over to the stairs. She grips the railing and goes white-knuckled as she steps down one step at a time. She stops as she comes to the judge's table and hefts the table back up from where it fell over, freeing up the previously-pinned judges. She inspects one of them and accidentally crumples something on the ground in the process. She looks to the floor to see what it is.

 _It's a…_ nametent _. These judges were people… What… did… I do this? I played and… they all fell._

She looks back at the judge she's inspecting and frantically pokes and prods, desperately trying to find a pulse. Nothing. The woman stares back at Ari, her gaze completely vacant, yet Ari feels like the woman is watching her. Ari backs away out of instinct, but instantly regrets it. Now, hundreds of vacant gazes bore into her. Their spirits whisper to her, demanding to know what happened and why everyone around them is dead. Ari squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head, convinced that the voices are her imagination, but the voices remain.

 _Why is everyone around me dead?_

 _Who are you?_

 _What happened?_

 _Danger._

 _Death._

 _Why am I not dead?_

Ari begins to panic, not knowing if she's going crazy or if there really _are_ voices. A seat creaks in the audience. She may be unsure if there are voices, but there definitely _was_ a creak. She freezes in place, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention to herself. She holds her breath, waiting for something to happen as her heartbeat pounds in her ears. The seat creaks again. Ari scans the deceased audience, trying to see what's making that noise. She eyes the auditorium again and again, but doesn't find anything. Then, she spots someone. Someone _Alive._ Suddenly, the doors to the auditorium burst open, revealing marines at the ready on the other side. There's a flash of blonde and Ari's carried off her feet and outside within seconds.


	24. Part 2: Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Ari sets sail! The battle between responsibility and running!

Ari struggles to regain her footing as she's suddenly put back on her feet again.

"Well, don't just stand there! I got us out, but we gotta keep running," someone says.

Ari looks up to find that she is indeed right outside of the auditorium hiding behind some bushes. The sky is dark, save for the light of the full moon. In Ari's company is a stranger who looks to be just about as old as she is. Maybe older. The first thing she notices is her long, blonde hair. But before she can pick up on anything else, the stranger pulls at Ari's wrist, almost causing her spiked bracelet to come off.

"Well, do I need to say it twice? Come on!" The stranger pulls on Ari's arm again, but this time switches so that she pulls on her other arm, the one without the bracelet.

Tears run down Ari's face and she can't utter a word in her current state of shock. Beads of sweat form along her brow and her hands shake uncontrollably. Her fragile state is worsened by the fact that Ari still hears those voices.

 _Escape._

 _Crazy devil fruit powers._

 _Hurry!_

The girl places a hand gently on Ari's forearm. "Listen, explanations later. Just follow me, okay?" The girl's eyes plead with her. Ari caves and runs alongside the girl, following her to wherever they need to go. Normally, Ari wouldn't be so careless about going off with strangers, but she's so grief stricken from losing two of her dear friends and the mystery of the tragedy just now that she doesn't put up much of a fight. Besides, they're in Shimotsuki Village, Ari's hometown. Ari's familiar with the place even at night. They run through the backstreets as to avoid any unwanted attention. The girl and her run for what seems like hours, but in reality is probably only minutes. By the time they come to a stop, Ari's muscles are burning from the exercise. The blonde girl however hasn't broken a sweat, despite her scrawny build and high heels. It seems like they've landed in the middle of a forest somewhere.

Ari remains silent, catching her breath.

The blonde girl shouts in frustration, "How'd I end up here?!" She throws her hands up in the air as if asking the universe, 'why me?' She sighs. "Well, anyway, I'm Pheonix," she says, extending out her hand for Ari to shake.

Ari shakes her hand out of courtesy, but doesn't say her name out of fear that when she opens her mouth a sob will come out instead.

Pheonix takes in their surroundings once again and shakes her head. "Well, we should be safe for now, but we'll have to keep a look out." She looks oddly paranoid, and even takes an extra minute to have a staring contest with a bush before nodding her head as if affirming that it is indeed a bush. "It's too bad I couldn't find the port," she mutters to herself, obviously trying to figure out where she went wrong.

"I can't just run."

Pheonix silently turns to face her.

"Those were… _people_. _I_ did this."

Pheonix furrows her brow and sucks in her lips. "Yes, yes you did. But it's hardly your fault. You have a crazy devil fruit power that is almost impossible to control."

Ari looks down at her feet. _She has a point… but this is my responsibility. I can't just run from it._ Ari shakes her head. "I can't," she says again, choking down a sob.

Pheonix frowns and crosses her arms. _Why does she have to take responsibility anyway?_ Pheonix, of course, wouldn't understand such a principle since she ran away from home when she was just a girl. 'Responsibility was for the rich' she used to say. And Pheonix never wanted to be one of _them._ "Okay," Pheonix sighs, "you want to know what will happen? I'll tell you. The marines will take you away, have you imprisoned, or worse: executed. Then what?"

Ari opens her mouth to object, but Pheonix cuts in again.

"Listen, responsibility isn't always the answer. Sometimes, running keeps you alive. And surviving is what's important."

"I have a family here! I have brothers, parents! How do you expect me to leave them?!"

Ari's words strike a chord in the blonde girl and she shrinks away. Pheonix gnaws on her lip.

"This is my home! I made friends here, I-I _lost_ friends here. I can't just leave because some stranger shows up and tells me I have to!"

"You have… a family?" She cocks her head at the brunette.

Ari is dumbfounded and replies like the answer should be obvious, "Yeah."

"I see." Pheonix gnaws her lip once more. "Could you um," she says under her breath, "point me to the port?" She ducks her head and attempts to hook her thumbs in her pockets, but realizing that she doesn't have any, lets them hang at her sides.

"That way," Ari sighs and points to the east.

"Thanks." Pheonix leaves, but in the opposite direction.

"Wrong way, turn around."

Pheonix's face flares as she turns and heads on her way yet again, this time going the right direction.

XXX

Later that night, hours after Pheonix and Ari parted ways, Ari sprints through the streets with a huge bag strapped on her back. Her feet pound the dirt and her hair whips past her face. Despite her intense lung training from playing the flute, her breath comes in irregular gasps. She clenches her hands into fists to keep them from shaking, but her teeth still chatter from nerves and her stomach is tied in knots. Finally, she arrives at the port and looks this way and that, searching for the stranger she met earlier. Finally, her eyes pass a small rowboat. The blonde is on board! She barrels to the little boat desperately and prepares to make her case known to the stranger.

Pheonix looks up and smirks when she sees who's coming towards her. "Finally caved, huh?"

"Listen, I," Ari stutters, "I changed my mind."

Pheonix raises a brow at this.

"You're right. I can't stay here." Ari fiddles with her fingers.

Pheonix turns back to her boat and continues with her work. "Alright, climb on."

"Just like that?" Ari asks.

"Uhuh."

Ari steps over the side of the boat and it dips down in the water at her weight. "I thought you said you had a ship."

"I may have slightly exaggerated. Besides, it looks like a ship to me."

Ari forces down a laugh at the blonde girl's comment. _Ridiculous how a tiny boat like_ this _could be a ship_.

Pheonix releases the rope tied to the dock and off they go into the night.


	25. Part 2: Chapter 24

Thank you to all my readers for all of your support and for sticking with the story! I know my updates are a little few and far between but hopefully you'll think the story line is as worth the time as I do ^^ Special thanks to one of my followers for reminding me that there are people wanting to read this story until the end. And thus, I give you chapter 8! Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 24

A Brush with Death? The Fluttering Swordswoman is Alive!

Ari opens her eyes and the sight of the palace ballroom greets her once again. To her surprise, the ballroom is intact and untouched by her devil fruit powers. She glances over to the flute in her hands and hesitantly puts it back down on the floor where she found it.

"I wish I could be a flutist again," she sighs and gazes longingly at the instrument by her feet. She forces herself to walk back to the side of the stage where the lights are to turn the stage lights off. She accidentally turns the ballroom lights on instead. She panics for a moment, thinking that with even _more_ lights on she might attract some unwanted attention upon herself. _Zoro already suspects the Fluttering Swordswoman is alive, let's hope that no one else does._ She's about to turn back and try to figure out which switches she needs to flip, when she notices someone in the ballroom. She intakes a sharp gasp and is both relieved and terrified that the person isn't standing. They're lying face down right where the door to the foyer is. _He's not… moving._ Her heart pounds in her ears and her eyes stay wide-open, unable to close to what she's done. She leaps off the stage haphazardly and races across the ballroom. She bullets through the maid's door at the back of the room and speeds through the tiny hallway as fast as her feet will carry her. She goes through the lounge and finally lands by the front door. She flings open the double doors and barrels through the village until she finally arrives at her and Marguerite's cottage. Ari runs through the door then to her room, passing Marguerite on her way there. Ari slams her door shut and slides down it. She tucks her knees up against her chest and bows her head in between them, taking long, deep breaths. _Not again, not again, not again, not again._ Tears form in her eyes and she lets them fall down her face one after the other until they're less like raindrops and more like a storm. _I did this, I did this, I killed him, I killed him._ Ari no longer tries to quiet her sobs as they burst out of her in waves. The sounds come racking out of her chest, shaking her entire body with it. Her fingernails dig into her palms, drawing blood that seeps under her fingernails. _His blood is on my hands, his blood is on my hands, his blood is on my hands._

Suddenly, there's a knock on her door. Ari freezes. _They've found me out._

But the only voice that pipes up from the other side is her friend, Marguerite's, "Ari, are you okay in there?"

Ari doesn't answer, terrified that a sob will come out instead of words. Even more terrified that the truth will. Ari doesn't hear anything else from the other side of the door and sighs in relief, thinking that Marguerite has gone on to do other things. Ari's proved wrong when there's a sort of sliding sound on the other side and a shadow remains through the slit under the door.

"Did that swordsman do something?"

Ari chokes on another sob at the mention of Zoro. The man that was lying there… in the doorway of the ballroom… was a Strawhat.

Nami walks along the palace stairs on her way to the kitchen. _Maybe I can coerce Sanji into making a snack for me!_ There's a maid dusting off the stairwell and Nami coughs up dust, giving the maid her best glare. The maid shrinks away and hurries back up the stairs and into the east wing to continue on with her duties. Nami smirks, satisfied with her own threatening element.

Zoro's also on his way downstairs on the stairwell next to Nami's, but not to ask the cook for anything, of course.

Nami finally gets down to the foyer when she spots Brooke doing one of his weird angle things. _That's strange. I've never seen him do one-hundred-and-eighty degrees before._ Then, it hits her: _He's not just doing that to catch a glimpse of my panties is he?!_ "Brooke, you pervert!" She clobbers him on the head. "How dare you think you can catch a look at my underwear like that!" Brooke instantly shoots up to a stand and Nami realizes that it's unlikely he would catch a glimpse of her panties with his face down. But what else would Brooke be doing lying face down in the doorway to the ballroom? "What were you doing face-down in the doorway, anyway?"

Zoro continues on his way, disregarding the strange antics of his crewmates, when Brooke's explanation catches his ear, "I was going to play, but then I heard a flutist and it tugged on my heart strings! Or it would if I had any heartstrings to tug on yohohoho. I could feel my soul soaring again!"

"So you…"

"It was such a beautiful note to match such a lovely woman. I couldn't handle the combination and I fainted," he elaborates, gesturing poetically with his hands. "I wonder if she would let me see her-"

"Grow up!" Nami clobbers him again.

 _The Fluttering Swordswoman… it_ has _to be her!_ "Brooke! What exactly did you see?!" Zoro growls and picks the skeleton up by his collar.

"Zoro, come on, leave the poor guy alone. He just saw a musician, that's all." Nami waves it away with her hand.

"No, that wasn't any ordinary musician!" Zoro retorts. "I'll ask again: what did you see?"

Brooke puts his hands up as a token of truce and replies, "Sadly, I didn't get much of a glimpse of the woman, Zoro-san. All I remember was seeing brown hair."

 _The Fluttering Swordswoman is a brunette. But I already knew that from her wanted poster! Damn. But she was here. That settles it. She is definitely a maid._ "Did you see where she went?"

"My eyes couldn't see since I was passed out. Though I suppose I don't have any eyes to see with, yohohoho."

 _Damn._

"Zoro, what's this about, anyway? She's just a flutist, what's the big deal?" Nami crosses her arms over her chest. _Zoro doesn't even care about music. What the hell is going on?_

Zoro ignores Nami and races into the auditorium, foolishly hoping that the Fluttering Swordswoman is still there. All he sees is an empty ballroom, but he decides to check it out more thoroughly by getting a better view up on stage. _These are the same stairs_ she _walked on._ There's a flute that's been discarded by the microphone and looks to be an amazonian flute based on the snake engravings. He carefully picks it up and inspects it, but he doesn't find anything that would help lead him to the Fluttering Swordswoman. Defeated, he sets the flute back down where he found it. He's heads back to climb off stage to share his findings with Robin, when he sees an item of discarded clothing left by the light switches. _A cardigan._ It looks like something any amazonian would wear and quite possibly might be one of the many clothes that Nami has, so he just leaves it be.

XXX

Marguerite sits there on the other side of Ari's door for quite some time. Marguerite slides her hand under the door and feels Ari's hand on hers.

"I killed someone."

Marguerite's eyes open wide at Ari's sentence.

"I played for the first time in five years and I killed someone." Ari sobs from the other side of the door and Marguerite squeezes her friend's hand tighter. "Marguerite, the reason I never told you," Ari sniffles, "why I was having nightmares and what they were about is because… because… I'm not Ari. That was just the name my parents gave me."

Marguerite furrows her brow.

"My name is Flutter," Ari whispers. "I am the Fluttering Swordswoman."


	26. Part 2: Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The Memory of Friends! The Power of the Fue-Fue Fruit!

Zoro bursts through Robin's door exclaiming, "I knew she was alive! She almost killed Brooke!"

Robin springs up from her chair and drops her book back on her desk. "You saw her?"

"Well, no, I didn't."

"Then how do you know-"

"Brooke said that he saw a brown-haired flutist and when she played, he fainted. He said that he could feel his heart being pulled and his soul escaping," Zoro says in a rush.

Robin takes all of this in and her eyes open wide in realization as she affirms, "But he didn't die because he doesn't technically have a heart to slice…"

A grin surfaces on Zoro's face and he nods.

Robin smiles. "I think you're right. She's alive and well."

Zoro continues, "and right here on Amazon Lily."

"We should leave to look for that ripped-out page now. While the maids are busy cleaning up from lunch." Robin and Zoro step outside her room and notice the maid dusting right across from them.

"What if some of the maids are still down there, then what?" Zoro whispers.

Robin pauses. "We just tell them that you got lost." Robin shrugs and walks ahead to the stairs at the end of the hall.

Zoro frowns at her jab towards his directional skills, but follows her nonetheless.

Marguerite is rendered speechless at Ari's confession. _Ari is… the Fluttering Swordswoman? I heard that the Fluttering Swordswoman died not long after Ari washed up here, but I never really saw the two events connected together. We only got the news coo detailing her death because the marine ship that took the Snake Princess for her summons had to return her back here. That's the only reason I even knew that the Fluttering Swordswoman existed. And here Ari is telling me that_ she's _the Fluttering Swordswoman?_ Finally having gotten her thoughts together, Marguerite replies, "You're the Fluttering Swordswoman?"

Ari sniffles on the other side of the hardwood door. "Yes."

"You're the-" Marguerite repeats when she's interrupted by the sudden opening of Ari's door. Marguerite falls back and catches herself on her elbows, looking up at her roommate.

Ari stands over her, tears still streaming down her face. Their eyes lock and Marguerite can see that Ari isn't at all joking. In fact, she's dead serious. "Yes," Ari repeats, "I am the Fluttering Swordswoman."

XXX

Robin and Zoro make their way to the servant's quarters in the basement of the east wing. There's one long hallway that can be seen from where they stand at the bottom of the stairs. All of the doors are closed neatly and much like the doors of the guests' rooms upstairs, there are numbers on the doors down here too. Except these numbers are painted-on rather than embossed with gold.

"We should put a plan in place in case we get separated for whatever reason."

"Why do we need that?"

"I hate to bring up a certain someone's bad directional-"

"Okay, fine, whatever. Let's do it," he caves and blushes at the mention of his horrible directional skills once again.

"Let's meet up at your room if that were to happen. I'm assuming that you can find your way to your own room, yes?"

"I'm not a moron," he retorts.

Robin nods, satisfied that they have a plan in place. "So where do we start?" Robin asks.

"Look in them one by one, I guess."

Robin and Zoro open the doors one at a time and look through the rooms. Each room is identical to the last: each containing a small bed, dresser, and a table of some sort. Both pirates look under mattresses, in drawers, pillowcases, and anything else that might be able to hide a scrap of paper. They look through each and every room in the first hallway, then, having come up empty-handed, look through the second hallway. Finally, they both happen upon the last two rooms.

"This is our last shot."

Robin nods.

Zoro goes into one room and Robin into the other. All Zoro finds in the one room is a bunch of maid's shoes along with a pair of heels. He sighs in disappointment and combs over the room one last time when he hears a gasp from the room Robin's in. He rushes out to see if she's found anything when he sees the blue-haired maid, duster and all, coming around the corner. He freezes in place as the maid continues on her way down the hall. She steps quietly and can't even be heard in the small hallway. Her steps bring her closer and closer still to Zoro and where Robin is. Zoro can sense Robin about to come out of the room, but Zoro speaks up quickly to let her know that they're not alone, "Hey, I, um, got lost." He could smack himself for delivering such a stupid excuse, however clever it may be.

The maid stops walking when she's about a foot from him and gives him a devilish smile. "How cute," she purrs, dusting Zoro's chest as she pads around him. "You sure you just, how'd you put it? 'Got lost'?" she breathes into his ear from behind him.

Zoro rolls his eyes at this and frowns at the woman's poor attempt of seduction. Many men would go on their knees to have this happen to them, but Zoro is different. He's never really been into romance or anything of the like. Up until just recently, he hadn't even desired a woman before. But of course up until recently, he hadn't known Ari.

The maid ignores his dismissal, and continues murmuring to him, "So you somehow just ended up in _my_ room, huh? That doesn't sound like coincidence to me." She moves herself a little too close to Zoro, and he fights to stay rooted in place, as to not encourage her.

 _So the room I was investigating was hers, huh? I didn't find anything there, but Robin found something in the_ other _one. That and the fact that this maid isn't a brunette means she can't be the Fluttering Swordswoman._

"You remember me, dontcha?" the maid continues with her pointless banter. "I'm Marin in case you don't remember." She slides one of her hands around his torso.

Zoro can't put up with her pointless flirtation any longer. He moves away from her and her hand slides back down to her side, freeing him of her grasp. "Can you, uh, show me how to get to the foyer?"

The maid frowns and finally gives up, leading him away from her room and down the hall.

XXX

"So, the nightmares," Marguerite reasons, "were because of what happened in the Florian Triangle?" Marguerite had gotten off the floor and her and Ari now sit at the kitchen table across from one another.

Ari's eyes go wide with surprise, "How did you know about the Florian Triangle? Or any of it for that matter?"

Marguerite nods, understanding that it's strange for an isolated islander such as herself to be in cahoots with this. "When the Snake Princess returned from her summons from the world government, she brought a newspaper back with her. Almost everyone on the island read that paper since it might include information about Luffy and his raid on Impel Down. But anyway, I also read the paper and saw an article about the Fluttering Swordswoman being declared dead. I was intrigued so I kept reading."

Ari stays silent for a moment before continuing, "Can this… you know… stay between us?" Ari gnaws at her lip and twiddles her fingers, nervous of what telling Marguerite means. It means that her secret is no longer her own. "I just, the Fluttering Swordswoman was who I was before, but now…" Ari quickly gets lost in thought.

"I understand." Marguerite smiles.

Ari leans over the table to give her friend a hug, but decides that it's too awkward so she goes around the table to do so instead. The pair hold each other as Ari trusts another person with her secret. "Oh, and do you think you could grab my stuff from the palace? My room number is 8."

"I would be happy to," Marguerite says, smiling. "In fact, I'll go get them now, how's that sound?"

"That sounds perfect." Ari smiles back.

The two friends wave goodbye as Marguerite heads out the door to grab Ari's stuff.

Ari sits back down at the kitchen table, taking a moment to ponder her life. _Over the years… Marguerite and I have sort of become best friends… just like Pheonix and I were all those years ago. Even further back, I was bestfriends with Kuina and Tansy. But all of my best friends are dead. I'm just glad that I have Marguerite. She's left._ The thought of Zoro pops up in her head too, but she dismisses it. _He's a pirate. He'll be leaving the island soon, so he's not even an option. And even if he was… I just don't know._ Ari lets her thoughts wander away from the swordsman and back on her best friends of the past…

Ari bounces up and down from the thought of seeing her best friends again! She'd been off on tour for a whole year following her dreams and that was fun, but she misses her friends terribly. Right at this moment, she is on her way home! She goes up the stairs and on deck of the tour ship and gazes over the railing at the sea. Right at the horizon is her hometown: Shimotsuki Village. Ari'd be there by evening time! She could hardly wait!

Meanwhile, her instructor skitters to this person and that person on the boat, making sure that everything is in order. Finally, he takes a seat and sighs with relief. "Oh, good. We should get there right on schedule at six o'clock!" he says satisfactorily, checking his watch and nodding to himself.

Ari laughs at Mr. Hester's antics, an act that is greeted with a glare from her instructor. She ducks her head in apology, but can't help but keep a smile planted on her face. Mr. Hester shakes his head at the young girl and proclaims, "You, my dear, are lucky to have such a timely instructor! So, please, do not make fun!"

"Yes, Mr. Hester," Ari chuckles and this is again rewarded with a glare from the old man. This time, she does not bow her head and instead faces it towards her home.

Right as Mr. Hester predicted, they come into port at Shimotsuki Village right at six o'clock. As soon as the ramp is in place to deboard, Ari flies off the boat with her luggage and races through town. At that pace, it only takes minutes for her to return back home, but it feels like hours. She flings open the front door, not bothering to knock and announces, "I'm home!"

"Arianna's home!" her brothers both squeal together. The two little boys run to their sister and hug her legs. She drops her bags at her feet and embraces her little brothers.

"Liam, Sky, man it's so good to see you guys!" she cheers. Her mother comes down from upstairs and her father races from the kitchen. _It smells like pancakes,_ Ari notes to herself with a big grin stretching her face. Both her parents wrap their arms around her and Ari is reminded of what it feels like to be encompassed in her family's warmth and care. She holds them all close both literally and metaphorically. It's then that she remembers who else she wanted to visit straight away upon her return. She had left without a chance to say goodbye to her family as well as her two best friends in the whole world: Kuina and Tansy. She often wondered on the tour how they were doing, but couldn't bring herself to write to them, especially since she was scarce on time during her travels. She pulls away from her family with a big smile lit up on her face and says, "Sorry, guys I want to visit a whole bunch more before my concert tomorrow, but there's some other people I want to see right away! I'll come home right after though, I promise! I'll only be ten minutes!" Ari starts out the door and is already down the walk within seconds when her dad calls after her, but she doesn't hear him.

She gets to Tansy's door and knocks. It seems to take forever for Tansy's dad to open the door, but when he does, his face lights up at the sight of Ari. "Arianna, it's so good to see you! I've heard that you've been off on tour the past year, is that right?"

"Uhuh, you got it!" she beams. "Is Tansy home?" Ari looks past Tansy's dad into the house, but there's no sign of her bestie.

Tansy's dad's face drops at the mention of her and he avoids making eye contact with the girl in front of him. Instead, he looks at the floor.

"Sir?" Ari asks again, "where's Tansy?"

His frown goes deeper at her repeated question and he stays silent.

"Did," Ari starts, "did something happen? Is-is she okay?"

The man sighs and utters, "It's-it's been almost a year now."

Ari shakes her head, in denial that anything could have happened to the girl she called 'friend'. _Tansy was a dragon lover like me, she breathed fire as we swung on swings. There's no way… she couldn't have…_

"She, uh, she was kidnapped."  
Ari looks up at this. _Oh, so she_ didn't _die?_

"She just ran from the house one day and she never came back that night. Her mother and I, we-we tried everything. We filed a missing person's report to the government and later that week, a marine vessel spotted her on a pirate ship."

"Well, what happened?!" Ari demands.

"The navy ship sunk right after they delivered the news to headquarters. A couple months later, that same pirate ship had wandered near the Florian Triangle and was stuck in a calm belt. But the navy, they-they were too late. A sea king had already devoured the ship along with the crew, and probably Tans-probably her too. The navy showed up only to see what little remains of the ship were left. Please, please excuse me," he hurriedly finishes and closes the door.

 _Pirates…_ Ari bites her lip and chokes down her tears. Ari runs as fast as her feet will carry her down the street to Kuina's father's dojo. _Kuina will be there. And darn it all to hell and back if I cry in front of her!_ Ari arrives and swings open the sliding door to the dojo. She's about to walk into the classroom when she overhears Kuina's dad talking to someone. She presses herself up against a wall and listens in.

"Let me have… that sword…" a little boy whimpers with a hint of a sob.

Kuina's dad, Koshiro, answers, "Kuina's sword?"

The little boy proclaims, "I'm going to get stronger for her, too! I'm going to get strong enough that my name reaches to the heavens! I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman!" He continues, his voice wavering, "I promised her… I…" The boy's sobbing pierces through the walls and into the hallway where Ari stands.

There's a pause before Kuina's dad answers again, "You can have it."

The boy's sobbing stops as he takes in those words.

"I leave Kuina's spirit and dreams… with you."

The boy cries out over and over both from his gratitude and his grief.

Ari slides down to the floor in a confused daze. _What… do they mean? Why is her dad giving Kuina's sword away? Sh-she needs that in order to become the… world's greatest swordsman._ Silent tears fall down Ari's face as she realizes what that conversation with the little boy means. _It means… i-it means… Kuina is… she's… gone…_

In the back of Ari's mind, she hears someone leave out the door on the other side of the classroom. Kuina's dad opens the door right next to Ari and starts at the sight of her. "Arianna, what are you doing here?"

Ari ignores his question and poses one of her own, "Where's Kuina?" She looks up at the old man, tears in her eyes. Her lip quivers.

Kuina's dad looks to his feet before looking back and making eye contact with the girl before him. "I'm sad to say, but my daughter is gone."

"B-but… _how?_ "

He looks down again. "She fell, tripped."

Ari's grief turns to rage at his words and she stands, holding him by the folds of his robe, "What do you mean she TRIPPED? She can't die just like that!"

Koshiro stays silent.

"How? How does this happen?! This can't… this can't be happening! Please tell me it's not real!" she pleads with him and cries into his chest.

"I wish it wasn't real as much as you do," he answers, patting a hand on her back. "I really do."

XXX

By the time Ari leaves the dojo, it's nighttime. She hobbles along the dirt path, much like Kuina and her used to when Kuina would come by and walk her to their training together. On her way, Ari passes by the playground and small church school that her and Tansy went to together. The swingset is still there, but it looks like it's slouching and not as tall and proud as it was before. Ari passes right by it, unable to look at it a second longer.

Suddenly, Ari hears her: "Let's be dragons, mmkay?" Ari whips her head back around to the swing set, but Tansy is nowhere to be found. _Of course she's not there, you idiot! She's… she's gone._ Ari sucks in her bottom lip and keeps on walking. She shuffles along and happens across a restaurant. Granted, it's more of a bar, but there is food there too. Kuina and her would go there sometimes during the day with their families when there was less hoodlums. Though based on the fact that it is nighttime and the ruckus that is heard from outside, it looks like there is plenty of hoodlumming going on.

Despite Ari's better judgment, she tromps inside and takes a seat at the same table that she usually would. She stays put and just watches the scene before her. There are drunken men all around as well as women, though some are sober. She sits there in silence for quite a while, allowing the noise around her to drown out her grief.

Then she hears another noise that's a bit too close to her silence and next thing she knows, a hand claps over her mouth and a grubby arm squeezes around her waist. There's a crude and barbaric chuckle as she's carried outside. More chuckles and laughter by more people follow. Her eyes open wide as she tries to catch a glimpse of whoever is grabbing her, but all she sees are yellowed-fingers right under her nose. She gags at the smell of alcohol and grime. Ari brings her arms up to yank his hands off her mouth so she can cry out, scream or do something, but it's no use. She can't even manage to lift one of his dirty fingers off her. Her heartbeat pounds, bursting out her eardrums. Her eyes desperately seek someone to help her, but no one's there except the monsters surrounding her. She continues to kick and flail her arms about, desperately trying to spring herself free from her kidnapper, but remains captive. She looks forward and finds that she's at the port, about to board a pirate ship. _NO! I will not end up like Tansy did!_ She jabs an elbow at her kidnapper's side, but he only grunts slightly. Ari's not as strong as she once was a year ago. She practically had to give up any sort of physical training whatsoever except for lung training due to her tour. She just didn't have the time back then. Boy, does she wish that she had _made_ time for it now. Her abductor steps on a plank leading to the deck and she wiggles about, trying to get free double time. She even attempts kicking backwards in order to make a hit to the man's groin, but is unsuccessful.

As they heft her onto the ship with them, the one grabbing her, presumably the captain, announces, "So, men, how much do ya think this lass' parents would give to get their precious girl back?" He crudely pinches her cheeks with the same hand that's clapped over her mouth. She rips her face away to scream, but the man slaps his hand back over her mouth, more forcibly this time.

The men cheer in response, lifting their weapons as they do. All except one who keeps eyeing Ari carefully.

"You, there!" the captain hollers.

"Yes, sir?"

The captain maneuvers around his men, Ari in tow. The men shrink away. He stops as he comes to the one that didn't cheer. "What say ye to ma declaration?"

He, unlike the others, remains standing tall. The man has brown hair and looks much more refined than the rest. "I've seen her before sir," he answers the captain and continues to study Ari as he fiddles with his pocket watch.

"Nonsense! Whether we know this here girl or not, she be a givin us a ransom! Hopefully, a mighty good one, in fact!"

The men cheer again, but Ari hardly feels their joy at the prospect of treasure. Obviously because she _is_ the treasure. The captain cackles once more, when a huge portal of some sort opens from a door above deck. The men shrink again, including the captain. A tall man emerges from the portal, wearing worn jeans and a t-shirt. His attire is casual, but his presence commanding. Slowly, he makes his way down the steps one at a time. The men cower further with each step. The man has fiery red hair that's been cut down to a buzz and a beard to match. A translucent blue adorns his eyes, piercing through the pirates' souls.

[Author's note: to see the illustration for this portion find me on Deviantart! Yes again my user name is Pheonixdino]

He carries no weapon and his hands swing causally at his sides. Finally, he makes it down the steps and moves through the crowd of men until he's face-to-face with the one that's taken Ari captive. The stumbling pirate bows his head in the presence of the red-haired man and it becomes clear to Ari that _this_ man is the _real_ captain. For several moments, the red-haired man stays silent, allowing for his authoritative presence to wash over the deck and onto his crew. Finally, he opens his mouth. "Tim, who do you believe this to be?"

The pirate that didn't cheer, Tim, speaks up right away, "Arianna Bendit, sir. The world-renowned flutist whose last concert of her tour is tomorrow night."

The red-haired man smiles a small smile and bows his head in thanks to his crewmember. "Well, it would certainly be rude to deny a musician her last concert, now wouldn't it, Nise?" The red-haired man brings his face up to his subordinate, until he's close enough that both the pirate and Ari can smell his minty breath. The red-haired man's lips curl into a smile, daring his crewmember to defy him. It goes without saying that Nise doesn't even dare. In fact, the pirate doesn't dare to even look the red-haired man in the eye. Instead he stands there, quivering and shaking uncontrollably as he replies, "Yussir."

Ari can feel herself slipping through the coarse man's grasp due to his fear of the captain and takes advantage of the situation. She bites down on the yellowed-fingers of the pirate and he rips his hand away from her mouth. In the process of taking his hand away, he also removes the other one from around her core, freeing her at last. She bolts from the men around her and heads for the side of the ship she came up on when a group of the pirates rush to block her. She scurries around the side of the ship and is met with more opposition, so she hurries up the stairs and in her rush, accidentally falls through the portal that remained open after the real captain emerged. She covers her head instinctively, not knowing where she'll end up, but it turns out that she's still on the ship. She's in the room that the portal emerged from. Frantically, she looks around for a way out, but there are no doors, only a small window right above a desk on the other side of the room. She races over to the desk and inspects the window, but finding that there's no latch to open it with, she takes a box on the desk and prepares to break it. Just then, the red-haired man comes through the portal and seeing the box in her hands, he lunges at her. She quickly turns back around with the box and slams it into the red-haired man's head.

"Don't worry," she says, "I didn't break it, I just bent it." The red-haired man is rendered temporarily shocked from her hit and Ari takes the moment to break the window and jump through, box still in her hand. She's surprised to see that the window doesn't lead to the deck, but directly down to the surf. She lands face-first in the sand and wastes no time in getting to her feet. She bolts across the sand until she reaches the cover of the forest, but even then continues at a hurried pace. Her legs ache and her blood boils. Finally, she makes her way back to town and then hurries home, keeping to the backstreets in case the pirates decide to go after her again. She bursts through the front door to the sight of her mother and father waiting up for her at the kitchen table. They stand as soon as she enters and try as she might, Ari isn't able to avoid them.

"Arianna, are you alright?" her dad asks.

"You've got scratches all over you and," her mother smells the air surrounding her, "is that… _alcohol_ I smell on you?!"

"And what's the box in your hands?" her dad asks, curious.

Ari looks down and realizes that she never let go of the box. _I… still have it?_ Ari quickly recovers and says, "It's just a… a… " Ari remembers the gift that Kuina's dad gave to that boy. "A gift from Koshiro, Kuina's dad." Ari frowns.

"Oh, sweetheart," her dad says, hugging her. "I called for you when you ran through the door, but I guess you didn't hear me. I wanted to be the one to tell you."

Ari pulls away from her dad. "Can I… go to my room please?"

Her parents nod and she rushes up the steps to her room, shutting her door behind her. Finally getting a chance to breathe and process all that's happened that day, she sets the box on her floor and curls up on her bed. She takes long, deep breaths, determined to calm herself down. Eventually, her curiosity sneaks in and she cautiously peeks over the edge of the bed at the box. _The red-haired man seemed to be on my side, but when he saw me holding this box he didn't hesitate to attack me. Whatever is in that box… it must be valuable._ Ari crawls out of her bed and inspects the box, trying to open it, but it's no use. It's locked tight. She grabs a safety pin from her desk and tries to pick at the lock. She's about to give it up, when suddenly the box springs open and Ari flinches backward out of surprise. The whole lid is flipped back, revealing the bright piece of fruit inside. It's then that she realizes why this box is so valuable to the red-haired man. _It's a… devil fruit._ Its magenta color and deep swirls call to her, tempting her to taste it. _Kuina… Tansy… I can't believe I lost them._ She chokes down her tears as a new conclusion comes upon her. _I will never, ever let my friends die again. Maybe… maybe… this can help._ And with that last thought, Ari swallows her doubts and carefully lifts the hefty fruit out of the box. She brings it closer and closer still to her mouth and in a flash of haste, gobbles the whole of it down. _I am now… a devil fruit user._ She grins.

* * *

If you can't already tell, I really love building on character's backstories and how they became who they are in the present timeline.

Until next time! Auf Wiedersehen!


	27. Part 2: Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The Missing Piece is Found! Tori's Confession!

The maid leads Zoro from the basement and up to the foyer, bowing as she turns to leave. Zoro also turns to leave the foyer and go to his room as he and Robin agreed, but his mind goes blank and suddenly he has no idea which way to go. In a stroke of genius, Zoro thinks to call the maid back over and ask. _I can't take any chances. I need to get to my room as soon as possible, especially if Robin's found something._ Marin happily returns back at his side and leads the way. They land at Zoro's room a few minutes later and Zoro tries not to fidget as he prepares to enter. Marin takes her leave right as Zoro opens the door. Robin appears to have already arrived and she quickly grabs Zoro by his robe and pulls him inside. She slams the door shut behind them. Zoro's about to demand why she insists on pulling him in so roughly when Robin speaks up, "Zoro, you will never believe this. I found it. I found the page."

Zoro's eyes open in amazement as he hurriedly jitters, "Well, where is it?"

Robin quickly grabs a piece of paper out of her pocket. "The paper appears to be the same as the paper in the logbook and it's ripped at the top. This is our paper."

"So the names are…" Zoro reads down the paper until he comes upon two names, "Marin and Tori."

Robin nods enthusiastically.

"Well, obviously it can't be Marin, since she has blue hair. Tori has brown hair as Brooke said. It has to be her."

Robin nods again and says, "And even better, I found the page in _Tori's_ room. I knew it was hers because there was a letter with _her name_ on it. I didn't have time to read the letter of course since it was too risky, but it's her." Robin beams at their discovery.

"It's _her_ ," Zoro says again, not quite believing that he finally found the swordswoman that he's been indebted to for so long.

"It's her."

Zoro bursts from his room before coming to the realization that he has no idea where to start looking. "Damn, I have no idea where to find Tori!"

"Zoro," Robin peeks her head outside the door, "may I ask again why you're so set on tracking her down?"

He ignores her question, but her words provoke a thought in him, _That's right! I have to track her down… down… down!_ Zoro makes a sharp turn and goes, well, _down._ He takes the stairs two at a time and his heart races with anticipation as he continues to race down the stairs until there are no more stairs left to run down. He lands up in the medical facilities and tours down the halls until he happens upon one that he recognizes. _Isn't this the room that Ari was in this morning?_ Out of curiosity, he peeks open the door to see if Ari's still there, half-hoping that she isn't and is better and half-hoping that she's still there so he can tell her about his discovery. To his luck, Tori happens to be lying in the bed before him, coughing up a storm. Her maid uniform is intact, except for the veil which has been discarded on her nightstand. For a moment, Zoro can do nothing but stare.

Tori looks at him strangely. _Didn't Ari break into my room earlier too… man this must be a popular room to break into or something… weird…_

Zoro, finally getting his words together, speaks up, "I know who you really are."

Tori goes wide-eyed at this and Zoro notes that without her veil, one of her eyes is slightly faded. Tori opens her mouth to speak, but Zoro cuts in again, "I know who you are. I know you're the Fluttering Swordswoman!"

Tori's sharp intake of breath and her slack jaw reveals to Zoro that he and Robin were right. _This is definitely her._ A satisfied grin surfaces on his face.

Tori closes her faded eye, nods and wheezes, "You got me."

XXX

Marguerite successfully arrives at the palace and is welcomed in through the front doors by a cooing Sanji, "Margueritteee-cwan!" He throws his arms around her enthusiastically and Marguerite allows him, not bothered by him in the slightest.

"Hello, Sanji," Marguerite beams and Sanji practically dissolves into a pile of goo at her greeting. "I just came by to pick up Ari's things. Would you be so kind as to show me to her room, please?"

"My pleasure, my sweet." Sanji extends his arm out to her as if he were escorting her to a royal ball. In reality, he's only escorting her to a royal room, but Marguerite accepts the gesture nonetheless and wraps her hand around his bicep. _I wish I could lead her to my room instead,_ he sighs, _but the lady shall get what she wants._ So within a couple minutes, the pair lands in Ari's room. Sanji opens the door for the blonde girl and she walks in, packing up Ari's things. As Marguerite finishes up, Sanji offers to carry the bags and Marguerite indulges him. They land back down in the foyer and Sanji sets Marguerite's bags down by the door as he sweeps her off her feet quite literally. She gasps in surprise but her expression soon shifts to a smile as he waltzes her into the ballroom with her still in his arms. He sets her down and Marguerite continues to appease his desire to dance. The only sound in the ballroom is the rhythmic tapping of their shoes against the floor.

They dance for a while, when Marguerite regretfully interjects, "Sorry, Sanji, I really should get going back to the cottage."

"Whatever you say, Marguerritteee-cwan!" He follows her on her way to the door, but pauses when Marguerite comes to a stop and eyes the stage. "Anything the matter, my sweet?"

"Hold on, I think Ari just left her cardigan on stage. Let me go grab it." Marguerite steps up the stairs and grabs the cardigan off the stage when she notices a flute that's been discarded by the microphone. She's reminded again of who her friend really is. _If Ari's cardigan is here, and a flute is too..._ Ari's words echo in Marguerite's head, 'I killed someone.' Marguerite shakes it off and forces the disturbing thought out of her head. She hurriedly pads down the steps and out the door, comforted by the fact that Sanji is by her side.

She finally arrives back at the cottage and hands Ari her bags as well as her forgotten cardigan.

Ari slips the cardigan on and rubs her hands along its soft surface. "Oh, yeah, I forgot I left this thing on the…" Ari stops mid-sentence and Marguerite smiles at her with understanding. Ari smiles back at her friend and changes the subject, "Well, anyway I'm headed off for a walk, okay?" Ari pulls her hair up into a haphazard ponytail.

"Okay, have fun and Ari?"

"Yeah?"

"You are coming home tonight, right?"

Ari laughs. "Yeah, I'm coming home tonight."

 **XXX**

"You got me."

Tori's words echo in Zoro's ears and he stands there for the longest time, unable to say anything more to the swordswoman in front of him. He just lets the information sink in, one bit at a time.

Tori keeps her faded eye closed as she speaks up again, coughing to clear her voice, "So, Roronoa Zoro," she pauses in an attempt to get more of her voice back, but ends up making it worse, "what shall you do now that you've found me out?" She smiles sadly at him.

"Thank you," he whispers, the words coming out before he has a chance to stop them. Tori shoots a confused gaze at him. "I mean, um," he stutters, "you inspired Kuina, before I knew her. I wouldn't be as strong as I am today if it wasn't for Kuina's strength. And Kuina wouldn't have been strong if it wasn't for you, so thank you." Zoro, wanted pirate of the Straw Hats, bows his head to show the extent of his gratitude towards the frail brunette.

She laughs, but that causes a wheezing cough to erupt from her throat. "Kuina was a dear friend," she strains.

Zoro nods in agreement.

"Could we…" Tori coughs again, "keep my identity on the downlow?"

Zoro nods again.

"Good," Tori says and rests back against the headboard.

Zoro, satisfied, exits the room. _You weren't able to say goodbye to your friend, Kuina, but at least I delivered your gratitude._ For a moment, Zoro swears that he hears his old friend's voice and he chooses to believe that he does. He chooses to believe that Kuina is somehow smiling down on him, happy.


	28. Part 2: Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Ari and Zoro Meet Again! Her Memories Return!

After Zoro expresses his gratitude to the Fluttering Swordswoman, he heads outside of the palace to take it all in. He walks through the village with no particular destination in mind. Soon, he abandons walking through the village at all since he continually gets chased by the boy-curious women of the island. Somehow, he ends up getting lost in the forest yet again. _Darn it all to hell and back! Why does this island have so many forests?!_ He sighs. _Well, no use in standing still. I'm not going to get anywhere unless I keep moving._ So, he continues walking around the forest, without a clue as to where he is, when he stumbles upon a tree that he remembers. _Isn't this the same tree that blew my cover that one time?_ He remembers when he and Ari first met. _A piece of fruit fell from a tree and I startled Ari off the edge of the cliff._ He laughs to himself, when a fruit falls from the tree once again, plonking him on the head. He shoots the tree a begrudging look. Though the fruit made his head hurt, it causes a sudden flutter of butterflies in his stomach. He brushes it off as he looks past the trees and sure enough, right there is the cliff's edge where he and Ari first met. He smiles and steps past the tree line to relax against the pomegranate tree there. He slides down the trunk of the tree and rests his head against the solid wood. His hands rest in his lap and he closes his eyes, readying himself for sleep. Strangely enough, he finds himself unable to sleep and, defeated, he settles on just looking up at the bare branches of the tree. His grin stretches a little wider at the memory of how they came to be bare in the first place. _I cut them down for her. She's so short._ He laughs again.

Suddenly, there's a sound in the forest just beyond where's Zoro's relaxing. He puts a hand to the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it if need be. The sound comes closer and closer until the source makes its way out of the forest and into the clearing where Zoro lies. The source of the sound makes him shake from nerves, but is not dangerous. The source makes his heart pound out of his chest, yet is not a threat. It makes him quiver with longing, but it isn't food, nor sleep, nor a sword. It may not be dangerous, but it is lethal. The source smiles in surprise at seeing him here and he does his best to give her some sort of greeting, but her brown-pink ponytail and minty-green eyes steal his breath away and make him unable to say anything at all.

XXX

"Surprised to see you here," Ari says.

Zoro struggles to form the words necessary to reply, so he just shrugs instead.

Ari comes up and slides down the tree trunk until she's also sitting on the grass. The pair sit in a comfortable silence side-by-side.

"So, I asked you about the Fluttering Swordswoman before, right?" Zoro asks.

Ari gives him a weird look and replies with a laugh, "Yeah."

"Found her."

Ari goes still, thinking that he found _her_ out. She goes over it again and again, wondering how on earth he could have found her out. _Maybe he saw what happened in the auditorium or maybe Marguerite blew my cover to the Strawhats after all!_

Zoro elaborates before Ari can say anything else, "It's a maid in the palace."

Ari holds in her relief and says, "Oh, congrats."

The two of them settle back into silence. Zoro steals a glance at the woman beside him and can't help but to linger especially long on her lips. His face flares as he remembers what happened before lunch today, how close they were and how their noses touched just slightly. His mind continues to torture him with the memory of the almost-kiss in his room after they had run from the snakes. _Hell, catching her from falling today might as well have been an almost-kiss too! I am so tired of 'almost'!_ His gaze moves back up to her eyes and it's then that he realizes that he's been staring at her lips for an unnaturally long period of time. Not only that, but based on the confused look on Ari's face, she _noticed_ his gaze linger especially long. He opens his mouth to say something, anything that can explain why he can't stop staring at her, but no words come out. So there he is: his lips slightly parted, his bright-red face clashing with his hair and damn near desperate to kiss her. He wraps a shaky hand around her neck, gently massaging the skin there and notes how she leans into his touch. This encourages him and he wraps the other hand, more confidently this time, around the curve of her waist to rest on the small of her back. The cardigan she's wearing is soft and somewhat familiar to Zoro, but he happily ignores the details of her clothing in favor of imagining her _without_ it. Zoro bites his lip and looks back up to gaze into Ari's eyes. Her eyes flick back up in unison with his and their gazes meet at the same time. He smirks when he sees that he's effectively managed to turn her cheeks a soft pink. Ari's face remains still and unreadable, but it's her eyes that give away her lust. Zoro's always loved mysteries, granted not as much as Robin does, but they always demand his attention, not unlike Ari. So much mystery to her and so much that he has yet to uncover. And Zoro is more than willing to uncover her layer by layer. But for now, he'll settle for uncovering just one: a kiss. He leans his face in closer to hers and his face lights up at the memory of that afternoon, the recollection causing him to rub his nose against hers just a tad bit. This elicits an amused chuckle from Ari and she can't help but beam back at him. Zoro always races into battle mercilessly no matter how strong the opponent, but strangely finds that it takes more courage to do this one simple thing than it does to defeat a thousand giants. His heart pounds out of his chest and he struggles to catch his breath as Ari sways closer to him. Finally, Zoro gathers up all of his courage and tilts his head, leaning in for the kiss. Ari doesn't resist and tilts her head as well. Their lips brush at first, like a feather's touch. Their breath isn't the only thing that lingers between them; nerves do as well. Zoro tilts his head further, determined to actually kiss the damn girl this time, when suddenly Ari remembers what it was that she needed to tell Zoro. Granted, not the best timing for it, but she has to tell him nonetheless so she pulls away and exclaims, "Zoro, there's a marine spy in the palace!"

He shakes his head, recovering from her sudden declaration, and replies, "A spy?"

"Yes," Ari shudders, "and the marines are coming for you and your crew."

[author's note: to see the illustration for this portion of the fanfic find me on deviantart! And yes my username on there is indeed Pheonixdino]

XXX

After Marin walks Zoro to his room, she's walked a couple of feet away when Robin hurriedly pulls him inside. _It seems that Robin's in his room._

She quietly pads over to listen in, but before she knows it, Zoro rushes back out again. "Damn, I have no idea where to find Tori!"

Scared of getting caught eavesdropping, she ducks into the room across from his and slams the door shut behind her. She presses her ear up against the door and manages to hear Robin say, "Zoro, may I ask again why you're so set on tracking her down?" Marin suppresses a gasp and she smirks satisfactorily. _Looks like they tracked the Fluttering Swordswoman down after all._ She frowns. _But it's not good enough that they simply_ think _Tori is the Fluttering Swordswoman… she has to admit to it._

"How has a lovely lady landed upon my room?"

The voice startles her and she whips around and spots one of the Strawhats: the cook. He goes down on his knees and grovels towards her, extending out his hand to hold hers and brace it with a kiss. The moment his hand connects with hers, she grabs his wrist, twists it, swings him around, and bends so that one of her knees is now planted in between his shoulder blades. The force of his nose hitting the floor, as well as him getting a peek up her skirt, causes a massive stream of blood to shoot out of his nose. He remains unmoving and Marin Andakaba gives his shoulder an experimental jab, but Sanji is passed out cold.

"HE PASSED OUT?!" Marin exclaims, her jaw dropping at the ridiculous sight before her. "Geez, now I have to check him into the medical wing which will take forever and by that time…" _Wait…_ _if I hurry, I may be able to catch up to that swordsman later! Now that I think about it, Tori was checked into the medical wing for one of her chronic sore throats this afternoon… so if he's looking for her, I just might get lucky and run into him!_ With that thought in mind, Marin quickly pulls the emergency rope right by Sanji's bed that signals to the medical wing down below. Soon after, some nurses file in, lift the cook up on a stretcher and carry him down the hall to the stairs. Marin accompanies the nurses, claiming that she was very attached to this particular guest and wishes to help look after him. The nurses all nod, agreeing that the Strawhats, the men in particular, are hard not to get attached to. They get down to the medical wing and settle him into the room right next to Tori's.

One nurse stays behind as the rest file out to attend to other matters, when Marin interjects, "That's alright, I'll monitor his condition. You look so tired and I'll come find a nurse if his condition changes." Marin smiles.

The nurse smiles back, grateful and replies, "Oh, thank you so much, dear. I'm tuckered out." The nurse takes her leave and Marin quickly disregards Sanji in favor of peeking through the door to watch in case Zoro comes by Tori's room. She's not kept waiting long by the door when the green-haired swordsman passes by and curiously peeks inside Tori's room. _He's so directionally challenged, he must have a boatload of luck to make it here at all, let alone that fast! Lucky me!_ As Zoro steps inside Tori's room, Marin steps outside of Sanji's and stands carefully by the open door to listen in. She gets in position just in time to overhear Zoro declare, "I know who you are. I know you're the Fluttering Swordswoman!"

There's a sharp intake of breath, presumably Tori's, and Tori responds, "You got me."

 _That's it! Tori's the Fluttering Swordswoman!_ Marin rushes out of Sanji's room up the stairs and finally lands in the janitor's closet right by the entrance to the kitchen. The transponder snail that she used last time is still there. She dials to the Vice Admiral that is currently waiting for the second time in five years, right by the calm belt surrounding Amazon Lily.

There's a click on the other end as someone speaks, "Hello?"

"Vice Admiral Momonga, sir?"

"This is he, what do you want, Marin?"

"The Fluttering Swordswoman is alive, sir. Send the ships."

"You sure about this, rookie?"

"I'm sure, sir. Even if I wasn't, the Strawhats are here as well. Either way, you'll catch a big fish."

"Very well," he pauses, "see you in fifteen." There's another click as Momonga hangs up.

"See you then," Marin says, a devilish smile curling her lips as she hangs up the transponder snail. _Who's a rookie now?_


	29. Part 2: Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

The Navy Ship Comes Forth! Tori's Lie!

"The marines are coming for you and your crew."

Ari's words go through Zoro's mind over and over again, but he's having a difficult time processing what she said. _Why did she choose_ now _of all times to tell me?!_ "Why-h-how long have you known this?" Zoro's hands slip away from Ari's face and waist as he tries to make sense of it.

"A while, I guess," she says, still struggling to remember how long it's been exactly. When Zoro looks at her with shock, she continues, "I was admitted to the medical wing a night ago and I sustained a head injury that caused some short-term amnesia. I knew that there was something important I had to tell you, but I just couldn't remember what it was until just now."

He looks back down to the ground. _Her explanation sounds plausible, after all I saw her in the medical wing myself yesterday morning. There was a huge bandage wrapped around her head and everything. Besides, if she had purposely not told me about it, why would she bother telling me now that the marines might already be on their way?_ He looks back up at Ari and nods, signaling that he understands. Ari gives a small sigh of relief.

Zoro gets to his feet and extends a hand down to help Ari up. She gladly accepts the gesture. "We have to warn the crew," he asserts.

Ari nods and Zoro starts toward the forest when Ari catches his arm to stop him. "But… let me lead the way, okay?"

Zoro grumbles at this, but doesn't try to argue as Ari leads the way back to the village.

XXX

Right after calling Vice Admiral Momonga to send the ships that had been on standby, Marin grabs the sea-prism-stone handcuffs and a sea-prism-stone chain out of the sack of cleaner in the janitor's closet. Momonga had sent her here on a mission five years ago to make sure that the Empress carried out her duties and didn't try to ignore a world government summons again. The reason that the marines chose her was because while she was fully trained as an officer, she was expendable. If the Empress ever decided to turn her to stone, the navy wouldn't lose anyone they couldn't replace. _I proved them wrong._ She grins. _I am NOT expendable._ Marin takes the cuffs and heads down the stairs to where Tori's hospital room is. She keeps the cuffs behind her back and enters Tori's room as if she's just a concerned subordinate. "How are you feeling?" Marin asks, coming up to Tori's bedside.

"I'm alright," Tori whispers.

Marin says, "Well, I hope you feel better. It's hard doing so much work around here."

Tori doesn't respond.

Marin takes a moment to pretend to be distracted by Tori's nails. "Woah, are those your natural nails?"

"You've seen them a dozen times, Marin." Tori rolls her eyes.

"But I want to see them once more, Tori!" Marin is left in awe at the perfection of Tori's naturally white nails as she holds Tori's hand in her own. Suddenly, Marin brings around the sea-prism-stone handcuffs and slaps them around Tori's wrists, quickly locking them into place. "Or shall I call you the Fluttering Swordswoman?"

Tori closes her faded eye, but then opens it again as she comes to the realization that this isn't her imagination. _This is really happening…_ Tori is dumbfounded at the fact that the marine spy thinks _she's_ the Fluttering Swordswoman. Tori had figured out long ago that Marin was a spy for the marines when she ripped out the logbook page. It detailed how Marin had washed up on the island the same day that the marine ship took Boa Hancock to her summons from the world government. Nonetheless, Tori goes along with Marin's accusations just like she did with Zoro.

 _She looks so shocked! I must have hit the nail on the head!_

"H-how did you know?! I demand to know how you found out!" Tori screams at Marin.

"I have my ways." Marin cocks up a smile. "None of which I'd reveal to a pirate," Marin spits. "Now, get up. You have a marine battleship that can't wait to blow you to pieces." Marin takes the chain and loops it around the middle of the handcuffs, rendering a useful leash to drag her captive.

Tori refuses at first, not budging an inch out of the bed, but the sea-prism-stone weakens her and Marin is able to force her to get up. Marin leads Tori down the hall of the medical wing and up the stairs. She is sure to keep a tight grip on the chain the entire time. They arrive in the foyer and head straight through the front doors. Tori tries to pull away, but the sea-prism-stone renders not only her devil fruit powers useless, but her own physical strength as well. Her breath comes quickly and her palms sweat, but she ignores it. She refuses to show fear. _I'm doing this for my captain,_ she reminds herself as she is forced down the streets by the marine spy. The villagers all stop what they're doing, curious as to what's happening, but despite them all being warriors, none of them step in. After all, all they see is two palace maids, one leading the other in handcuffs. The villagers don't even know what sea-prism-stone handcuffs are. Soon, the two girls enter into a forest.

As the forest begins clearing up, a massive navy vessel comes into view. "Looks like they're already here," Marin says triumphantly.

Tori looks to the shore and sees that Marin's right. Tori sighs. _This is it. All those years of surviving no matter what have come to an end. I am a survivor. I_ was _a survivor._

XXX

Together, Ari and Zoro run through the forest, making their way back to the palace to warn the rest of the Strawhats of the impending arrival of the navy. Ari leads the way as they agreed, but soon finds herself going in circles. She discreetly looks this way and that as to not alarm Zoro that she has no idea where she's going. _How on earth did I manage to get lost going to the palace from the cliff's edge?! I go from one to the other all the time!_

To Ari's dismay, Zoro catches wind of her difficulty and pipes up, "And you say _I'm_ bad with directions." He smirks.

"Oh, shush. I've only lived here for five years so it's natural that I wouldn't know the island _that_ well. Who says I'm bad with directions anyway?"

"All five major directions."

"There's only four major directions."

"Yeah," he utters, rubbing his hand behind his neck, "That's what I meant."

They wander around a little farther. "Could I, I dunno, just take the lead for a couple minutes?"

Ari ponders this and figures that he couldn't do a worse job than her so she appeases him. "So, great-navigator, where we headed?"

Zoro looks around and points somewhere, "That way."

"You just pointed to a random direction!"

"Got any better ideas?"

Ari stays silent at this as her and Zoro leap back into the sprint that they were in earlier. She runs close behind Zoro along the trail that he blazes. She's about to interject and insist that she take over navigational duties when suddenly, she's no longer in the cool shade of the trees. Instead she's out by the shore standing on the sand. There's a navy ship docked a little ways away from the coast and Ari gasps in surprise at the sight of who's onboard, but luckily Zoro claps a hand over her mouth to keep them from being heard. Slowly, Ari backs back into the cover of the forest, but not too far back since they want to overhear what's going on.

 _That man… that_ monster… _I haven't seen the likes of him since five years ago and I never planned on seeing him ever again._ Ari shivers and clenches her fists. _Vice Admiral Momonga._

Zoro peeks through the branches keeping him and Ari hidden and sees two women walking towards the boat. He takes a closer look and recognizes them as two of the maids in the palace: Marin and Tori. Marin is dragging Tori along with a chain that's wrapped around some sea-prism-stone handcuffs that keep Tori captive. Marin walks up the plank leading to the marine ship.

 _I just found her! I refuse to have her get captured just like that!_ In a moment of panic, Zoro gets up and readies himself to save the Fluttering Swordswoman from being captured. He walks behind Ari and opens his mouth to let her know what he's planning, when he sees something interesting tattooed on Ari's neck.

[Author's note: to see the illustration for this portion find me on Deviantart!]

He finds himself unable to look away at the sight of it. _It's the Fluttering Swordswoman's jolly roger. Now why would Ari have a tattoo of the Fluttering Swordswoman's flag?_ Every memory that he has of Ari since the moment he met her flashes past his mind and everything starts to add up. _She couldn't swim when she fell in the water, she's a brunette, she's a swordsman and she has horrible nightmares…_ Ari's sleep-talking from when he walked in on one of her nightmares resurfaces and plays back in his brain, ' _Stop it! I won't let you, you bastard! How dare you! My… cr… My friends… Emi… Pheonix… they're all dead… pirates… My… cr…'_

 _Pheonix… that was the name of the first mate of the Fluttering Swordswoman. And just now… she said that she's only lived here five years… it was five years ago that the Fluttering Swordswoman would have came here. And then there's the tattoo. Come to think of it, that cardigan she's wearing… no wonder it was familiar! That's the same one I saw on the stage today! Robin and I never considered the possibility that some new villagers weren't recorded. So Tori isn't the Fluttering Swordswoman after all._ Ari _is._

Zoro is momentarily shocked by his new revelation and can do nothing but stare at the woman in front of him. She feels him staring at her and turns her head around to see what's up. He continues to stare as he whispers just under his breath, "You're the Fluttering Swordswoman…"

Ari remains speechless at his sudden conclusion.

Zoro turns back to the the navy ship watching and listening carefully as to not miss anything that happens. _If Ari is the Fluttering Swordswoman… who is Tori? And why did she go along with it?_

Ari is still rendered speechless, but follows Zoro's example and looks back to the scene unfolding before them…

"Vice Admiral Momonga, the Fluttering Swordswoman as promised," Marin recites proudly.

Momonga lifts the brunette up by the chains on her handcuffs and takes a look at her face. One look is all it takes. Momonga's hands shake with anger as he bellows to his incompetent subordinate, "DOES THIS LOOK LIKE THE FLUTTERING SWORDSWOMAN TO YOU? YOU NUMBSKULL, THIS ISN'T THE FLUTTERING SWORDSWOMAN! IT'S HER FIRST MATE!"

[to see the end illustration for part 2 find me on Deviantart! You know my username]

* * *

So that's the end for part 2! Hopefully I'll get started on a part 3 sometime soon, but we'll just have to see. Until next time and thank you again for reading and following along with my story ^^

-Pheonixdino


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